AN official opening date has been set for Corringham's new integrated medical and wellbeing centre.

It will be held on Thursday, 3 November.

The centre, which is being operated by the North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), is the only one of four planned such sites across the borough to have made it off the drawing board.

Plans for centres in Purfleet, Tilbury and Grays are well behind schedule and with Thurrock Council, which is a major partner in the projects, in the middle of a 'catastrophic' financial crisis it may be several years before any of the other three come to fruition.

The ingregrated centres project, which is meant to replace Orsett Hospital, is supposed to bring about the 'transformation of health and care in Thurrock' and is supported by the Better Care Together Thurrock initiative, which brings together partners across mental health, health, social care and community and voluntary sectors.

Backers of the project say joining services together means better outcomes for people closer to home and a offers a comprehensive range of health, care, social support that focuses on prevention and wellbeing, as much as it does on health services.

Ownershiop and operation of the other three centres is yet to be fully determined but Corringham will be managed and run by NELFT, which provides community health and mental health services across the north east London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Waltham Forest, and in Essex and Kent.

NELFT Acting chief executive, Jacqui Van Rossum, said: "It's a great achievement that our partners across Thurrock have managed to work together to kick off the IMWC's transformation programme throughout the borough with the delivery of the new centre at Corringham."

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"The design and development of the Corringham centre has been long anticipated since the initial planning discussions back in 2017. So, it's a real moment of excitement to have this brand-new build ready to open its doors and start delivering services with a key focus on providing the health and wellbeing support for the community – when and where they need it most."

Rita Thakaria, Partnership Director, Adults Health and Social Care (Thurrock Council/Essex University Partnership Trust/NELFT) said: "Our approach to delivering health and wellbeing support to our local community through the Corringham IMWC, is to work with people and help them to make informed decisions about the care they receive – so that they can achieve the health and wellbeing outcomes that are important to them."

Ms Thakaria reflected on 'the need for not only health provisioning for the region, but also proactive mental health and physical wellbeing initiatives' and spoke of the importance of providing 'a unified integrated health and care approach which supports healthy lifestyles'.

She added: "It's important that we deliver services that can identify and treat illness when presented, but equally important that we work with people and provide services which can identify and help resolve the underlying causes of some issues, such as poor mental or physical fitness.

"Our focus is to support identifying what's strong and not what's wrong to enable our residents to lead happier and healthier lives. This ethos is very much a part of our new build and our care model for the new centre, which aims to reinvigorate our service approach in line with the Better Care Together Thurrock vision, address health inequalities and provide flexible, bespoke solutions to complex issues – coproduced in partnership with the people receiving care."

Services offered at Corringham IMC include support Adult Mental Health and Community Health Services, Sexual Health Services, Primary Care, Adult Social Care, Children and Young people services, Lifestyle & Wellbeing Services, Long-Term Conditions, Outpatients and Diagnostics such as Phlebotomy and AAA Screening.

The new IMWC also supports shared group spaces available to the community. NELFT says this is aimed at ensuring a sense of ownership and belonging for the local community, enabling local groups designated space to use for community-led events and activities.