The Health Secretary today opened Gracefield Gardens health and social care centre.

Alan Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Health, today (25 June 2008) formally opened Gracefield Gardens health and social care centre situated just off Streatham High Road.

The £8.9m landmark building opened its doors in the New Year and provides NHS primary care services, including GPs, and a Lambeth Council customer centre providing advice and information to local people on council services.

The funding for the scheme was part of a £30m construction and refurbishment programme across Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham under the national NHS local improvement finance trust (LIFT) initiative announced in August 2002 by the then Health Minister, John Hutton MP.

The opening of the centre comes on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the NHS on 5 July 2008. Despite opposition from the Conservative Party at the time, who voted against its creation, the NHS was launched in 1948 by the post war Labour government led by Clement Attlee and has treated millions of people since its creation.

Commenting on the opening of the centre, Chuka Umunna, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for Streatham, said:

“What better way to mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS which Labour created than with the opening of this fantastic new centre.

“We have trebled investment into the NHS to £100bn since 1997 but big numbers mean little to the every day person on the street – it is tangible things like this which people can see and use which demonstrate the return on that investment and the positive difference made locally.”