A major expansion in services for 10,000 patients has been unveiled by a Bradford family doctor.

A total of £250,000 has been invested in the new Clarendon Medical Centre, an extension to the GP practice run by Dr Bindu and her team in Alice Street, off Lumb Lane.

Minor surgical procedures will be performed in the new centre while there will be better facilities in clinics for patients suffering from diabetes, chronic complaints like asthma and for mothers and babies.

It is the second time Dr Bindu has expanded the practice where she has been based for the last ten years due to the growing demands for care.

Five per cent of her patients, totalling more than 10,000, suffer from diabetes while there is a high incidence of other long-term illness.

"The aim is really to provide good care to patients in familiar surroundings taking the load off the hospitals," said Dr Bindu, who has been practising in Bradford for nearly 20 years.

"Instead of having to wait six months for an appointment, they can get quicker services in-house here next day or even a visit in the home.

"It is important to provide a lot more services here in the inner city but money has always been the constraint."

She said operations for minor problems would include in-growing toe-nails, vasectomies and internal examinations under local anaesthetic.

It was planned to give diabetics more help monitoring their condition in the expanded facilities as well as providing chiropody and physiotherapy without visiting hospital.

She also hoped to get an optician or a dentist on-site to provide additional services under one roof while other GPs would also be able to use the services.

Further expansion was planned in future with the possibility of setting up a minor trauma clinic treating minor injuries which would otherwise be dealt with in accident and emergency at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

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