At last: Sheila Bremner and David Barron, of Mid-Essex Primary Care Trust, cut the first sod at the new hospital development.
Work has begun on Braintree Community Hospital – 11 years after plans were first unveiled.
The first sod was cut at the Rayne Road site yesterday, and it is hoped the facilities will be up and running early in 2010.
Final contracts for the project were signed in May, after discussions were reopened in November last year to see if the hospital could be built.
It will provide a range of outpatient, diagnostic and therapy services, together with a number of single en-suite rooms for inpatients.
The new hospital will be funded through a public finance initiative with partner GHG.
More than 9,500 readers signed a Braintree and Witham Times petition calling for work to start on the new hospital as soon as possible.
