Patients at the oldest GP practice in Bradford are set to benefit in the £1.5million development of a new purpose-built medical centre.

The Leylands Medical Centre in Leylands Lane, Heaton, replaces an out-of-date surgery run by Dr Brian Karet and partners in two converted houses on Toller Lane which first opened 30 years ago.

The practice serving 4,500 patients can trace its roots back to the 1860s when it was opposite the old infirmary in Hallfield Road. Its new base will be among the most modern in the city.

The building has six consulting rooms allowing GPs to have their own rooms for the first time, with additional treatment facilities for minor surgical procedures and a five-bed physiotherapy unit.

Other features are a NHS musculo-skeletal injuries clinic, NHS dentist, diabetic-care centre and a proposed pharmacy.

Private clinics will be available giving reflexology, aromatherapy and also sports medicine services which will be run by Bradford Bulls team doctor and GP at the practice, Dr Mark Brooke.

Dr Karet said the old surgery was no longer adequate for the delivery of modern health care in particular with the increasing demands place upon community services in recent years.

The development, alongside recent improvements to the group's other surgery at Kings Road Medical Centre in Wrose, would offer comprehensive care against the background of proposed changes in the organisation of GP services in the area.

"We only had two consulting rooms in the Toller Lane surgery - we just couldn't run adequate services at all," he said.

Dr Brooke said he hoped to offer a walk-in service to many local amateur sports people who suffered injuries and also advice to people wanting to take up exercise perhaps for the first time in their lives.

The first patients will be treated at the centre tomorrow but there is an open day today until 8pm.

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