More than 50 guests, including members of the community, turned up to see the official opening of Girvan Community Hospital.

Dr Wai-Yin Hatton, Chief Executive of NHS Ayrshire & Arran, had the honour of opening the facility and unveiling the commemorative plaque on Friday, January 20.

Girvan Community Hospital opened its doors to its first patients in May 2010.

At the official opening last week, Dr Wai-yin Hatton, chief executive of NHS Ayrshire and Arran, described the hospital as “a great example of local partnership working and improving the balance care.”

She said: “It gives me great pleasure to open this new state-of-the-art community hospital and hope that local people can benefit from it in years to come.

“As I come to the end of my 15 year term as chief executive of NHS Ayrshire and Arran, I am proud and delighted to have been involved throughout the planning of Girvan Community Hospital.”

A year-and-a-half after first opening its doors to the public, the people of Girvan and the surrounding areas are more than reaping the benefits.

Many patients from the Girvan and Carrick area can now be treated closer to home – for instance, in the ward, minor injuries unit or rehabilitation suite - rather than travelling to Ayr or Crosshouse.

This in itself is a major benefit - patients’ conditions can be monitored and treated quickly and effectively, without the need for the patient to travel.

The hospital also provides many outpatient services, including urology, paediatrics, diabetes, physiotherapy, smoking cessation, psychiatry and dental services.

And it has been instrumental towards the work of reshaping the care for older people living in the Girvan area.

The local community has been involved in the facility too, with school children taking part in an artwork competition where NHS Ayrshire and Arran asked kids: ‘What does healthy mean to you?’

The winning entries are displayed throughout Girvan Community Hospital and will promote the importance of keeping healthy for years to come.

Councillor Hugh Hunter, non-executive member of Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board and chairman of South Ayrshire Community Health Partnership (CHP) Committee, said: “Community hospitals have been at the heart of local health care for a while.

“But we recognise that community hospitals, particularly those with state-of-the-art facilities such as Girvan’s, play an important role in providing excellent local care and treatment and reducing the number of admissions to our acute hospitals.”