A DERELICT church has been converted into a medical centre for two GP practices.

Central Hove Surgery and Sackville Medical Centre will merge and start providing services at Holy Trinity in Blatchington Road, Hove, from the middle of next month.

The renamed Trinity Medical Centre will provide services for about 18,000 patients.

The church had been empty for almost ten years and had been facing demolition.

A spokesman for NHS England South said: “The merger of the two GP practices will support the delivery of sustainable care in a modern environment and will mean they are better placed to provide a wider range of services to patients in the future.”

Some GP practices are increasingly choosing to merge in order to improve the resilience of their services.

Practices across Sussex and around the country are currently experiencing a wide range of challenges, including a shortage of doctors wanting to become GPs.

They are also having to meet the needs of an ageing population with increasingly complex care demand and make sure they have the right workforce in place to support patient care.

Both practices, currently in Sackville Road and Ventnor Villas, will be keeping patients updated about arrangements for the forthcoming move.

The practices say the move will help them provide the best care for their patients and will enable them to expand to provide a broader range of services.

Their current sites are currently full to capacity and there is no room for expansion.

A statement on the Sackville Medical Centre website said: “In the course of our planning for this huge and exciting change it has become very apparent that it makes sense for the practices to merge and become one practice instead of two.

“We believe that a merger is in the best interests of all concerned in the practice, including patients, staff and the partners – and that it will provide greater opportunities for the future.

“We hope you will be as pleased as we are about this news.

“We have already started to work closely with the staff and partners of Central Hove Surgery and look forward to formalising our union in the new building.”

The work on the church site is being carried out by Medical Centre Developments.

As well a conversion of the former church into a 14,250sqft NHS surgery, the development also includes a pharmacy.

Both practices currently have an overall rating of good from the Care Quality Commission.