THE new centre will start by diagnosing and treating patients in Worcestershire, with the hope of also contracting its services out to primary care trusts across the UK, said Richard Haynes, spokesman for the county's acute trust.

"While the centre will make an important contribution to hitting our own local waiting time targets, it also has the potential to attract extra income by treating patients from outside Worcestershire," he added.

It is hoped this will reduce the trust's massive forecasted £7m overspend for this financial year.

Each service has been situated within the centre to closely match a patient's actual journey through the building, from diagnosis to treatment.

Patients will be able to book appointments in advance - ensuring their treatment fits in as conveniently as possible with their personal circumstances.

It will be one of four introduced nationally and will be signed up to NHS Elect - a chain of treatment centres which will use common protocols and procedures.

This means county clinicians have had the chance to shape the way services are provided at treatment centres nationally.

It will be staffed by clinicians and surgeons who already work in the county.

It has also teamed up with the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, which means facilities could be made available for surgical teams from the private health sector to carry out orthopaedic work on NHS patients, supervised by ROH consultants.

"These partnerships are further examples of the innovation which we hope will be a central theme of the way the centre is run," added Mr Haynes.

"But at the end of the day, all our work is focused on one main aim - providing a better service for the community we serve."

The first phase of the centre is Kidderminster Hospital's E-block, which has undergone a major refit and will house a range of "cutting edge" modern services and facilities.

The centre's general manager David Evans said: "It is a very exciting time.

"Over the last three years since the project began, the design of the new centre has radically changed and evolved, to ensure it is truly state-of-the-art.

"It is designed to provide an environment where innovation is the norm, and where the services we provide are shaped as much as possible by the people we are providing those services for.

"From the layout of the building and the information provided to the way appointments are booked and the way our staff will interact with people using the service, the centre marks a significant departure from traditional NHS way of thinking and working.

"We are moving away from the concept of a patient as someone who has no power over what is happening to them and has almost lost their identity.

"We are developing the centre as an environment where people coming in for treatment know exactly what is going to happen to them, when it's going to happen and why - and are happy that their needs and wishes have been taken into account as far as possible."