IT WILL be a bittersweet moment for the longest-serving member of staff when a Worcester doctor’s surgery moves to a new home.

For Diane Lamb, Berwyn House surgery in Shrubbery Avenue has not only been her place of work for 35 years but was also the home she shared with husband Anthony.

The couple lived there for six years from 1978 to 1984 and it was the house where they brought their first daughter Sarah home when she was born in May 1984.

The Barbourne surgery will close its doors on Friday and the following Monday staff will be working in the new £3.5 million centre in Droitwich Road, built on the site of the former Deers Leap pub and a builder’s yard.

Mrs Lamb said: “I am sad to be leaving Shrubbery Avenue. “When I got married in 1978 we actually lived here for six years so it will be the end of a very big era for me.

“Surgeries were really small in those days so it was only on the ground floor and we were on the first. I was always the first one to open up because I was on site then for lunch I would just pop back upstairs.”

She said that the new building was lovely and that staff were at the site taking deliveries in preparation for the move.

Mrs Lamb, aged 54, is the longest-serving member of staff having started at the practice as a receptionist.

She went to college for two years to take a medical secretarial course before becoming practice manager from 2006.

Mrs Lamb, who also has a son, David, added: “I have known so many people over the years, I’ve seen people come and go.

“It is just a lovely place to work, everyone is really close and get on really well together.”

The Edwardian end-terrace building is set to be turned back into a single house.