A new 9 million pathology centre at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton is beginning to take shape with the steel frame now in place.

The three-storey centre will house microbiology, haematology, clinical chemistry and hist-opathology units. Work began on the facility in September. It is due to be finished later this year and open in early 2013.

With the steel frame now in place, concrete floors are being installed on all three floors.

David Loughton, chief executive of Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, said: Its great to see this project taking shape on a daily basis. This is going to be a really important facility and is another significant project in our redevelopment of the New Cross site.

The 4,160sqm facility will include a number of new laboratories and facilities.

The work is being carried out by construction and infrastructure company Morgan Sindall.

Bosses at New Cross Hospital say the facility will cut waiting times for thousands of patients.

The pathology department will increase the speed test results are returned, meaning pat-ients can be treated faster and leave hospital quicker. The pathology department handles more than 1.2 million requests for work. It includes blood tests, urine tests, and identifying viral and bacterial infections among patients.

It is also hoped the lab will eliminate delays and reduce handling of samples which will lead to an overall improvement in the quality of the patient experience in hospital.

The four existing buildings house the departments of microbiology, blood sciences, clinical chemistry, histopathology and cytology. But they are old and ineffective.

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New Cross pathology centre frame in place