A health and wellbeing centre offering community health services for children, young people and adults has opened in St Albans.

Herts Advertiser: Mayor of St Albans Cllr Janet Smith opened the new health and wellbeing centre at St Albans Civic Centre. Picture: Hertfordshire Community NHS TrustMayor of St Albans Cllr Janet Smith opened the new health and wellbeing centre at St Albans Civic Centre. Picture: Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust (Image: Archant)

The new facility is based inside St Albans Civic Centre, and was opened by Mayor Cllr Janet Smith last week.

Services on offer include baby and toddler health clinics, health visiting, children's speech and language therapy, a children's audiology (hearing) service, specialist podiatry (foot care), and eye screening services for people with diabetes.

Clare Hawkins, chief executive of Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, said: "Thanks to a very successful and valued partnership with St Albans City and District Council, we have been able to replace an older, out of date clinic building with a new, state-of-the-art healthcare facility.

"I'm particularly excited that the new facility is inside the civic centre, right alongside a wide range of valuable local services. This will really help us to work more closely with these services for the benefit of local people.

Herts Advertiser: Mayor of St Albans Cllr Janet Smith opened the new health and wellbeing centre at St Albans Civic Centre. Picture: Hertfordshire Community NHS TrustMayor of St Albans Cllr Janet Smith opened the new health and wellbeing centre at St Albans Civic Centre. Picture: Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust (Image: Archant)

"I want to say thank you to our patients and service users for bearing with us over the last few months, while we had to provide services in other locations.

"Thank you to our council and local partner colleagues for their support and understanding while we carried out the necessary conversion work."

Facilities at the centre include special soundproof rooms for audiology appointments, and clinic rooms which can be used for a range of purposes - from one-to-one appointments to group sessions.

St Albans district council chief executive Amanda Foley said: "We are very pleased to welcome local NHS services to join the council and other partners at the civic centre.

"It's great to see the plans and partnership working coming to fruition, and lots more services made available in the city centre. It's another important addition to the local services hub which is developing here."

The new health and wellbeing centre has replaced the former Principal Health Centre, which was demolished as part of the council's Civic Centre Opportunity Site redevelopment scheme.

St Albans' local services hub includes Citizens Advice, the Volunteer Centre, Mind in Mid Herts, Hertfordshire Asian Women's Network and more.