Health minister John Hutton donned a hard hat and overalls to officially lay the date stone in Ulverston's new £4.6 million health centre.

Toting a ceremonial trowel, the Barrow and Furness MP slotted the stone into the rapidly-rising walls of the Primary Care Resource Centre, at Stanley Street.

He said: "People often say to me, we are spending all this extra money in the National Health Service, where's it all going?' This is where it's going! On building new health facilities for the 21st century.

"For us in Ulverston, this is not only a new home for GPs, it will help in the future to provide a new range of services clustered where people in Ulverston need them, rather than asking them to go to Furness General Hospital. We have got a fantastic facility here."

The new build is on the site of the old Victorian Ulverston Hospital, which was largely demolished in November last year.

When it is finished next spring, the ground floor will offer a new out-patient department, a physiotherapy department and an x-ray and ultrasound facility.

The GPs from the Ulverston Health Centre will also be taking up residence in bespoke facilities upstairs. As well as their own surgeries there will be practice rooms for nurses and a facility for minor operations. A district nurse and community health visitor will also use the new centre as a base.

In addition, among its rooms will be a place for a dental practice, due to be taken on by an existing Ulverston NHS dentist who offers children's dental care.

Leigh Griffin, the chief executive of the Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust, hoped the new facilities would eventually allow them to offer more patients NHS dentistry.

He went on to praise Wigan-based builders Allenbuild and Kendal architects Mellors for the project's progress.

"Work started in February and is due for completion in March 2005. It's being built to time-scale and cost."

Some 1,300 tonnes of concrete have been poured into the foundations, topped by 125 tonnes of structural steelwork and surrounded by 15,000 concrete blocks so far.

"It's a significant development for Ulverston and the surrounding community," said Dr Griffin. "It reflects our commitment as a primary care trust to maintain and develop health care for people in Ulverston."

South Lakeland District Council leader and Ulverston town councillor Colin Hodsgon said the centre's main benefit was that it would bring health services together on to one site.

"It's brilliant, it's going to be a fantastic facility and bring more services into Ulverston. It's what people want."