More patients will be able to get treatment at Barking Hospital from today with the opening of an eye service.

Run by Moorfields Eye Hospital, the eye service moved into the community hospital in Upney Lane at the weekend from its previous home at the Upney Lane Centre.

It will treat conditions including retinal lesions and blurred vision, with patients referred by their GP.

Barking GP Dr Gurkirit Kalkat said: “It’s great to see people now coming into this half of the hospital and taking advantage of the new facilities to receive high quality care in a truly 21st century community hospital.”

Services including dermatology are due to move into Barking Hospital in the coming weeks. Upney Lane walk-in centre and x-ray services will also transfer into the multi-million pound building.

Dr Kalkat said: “It’s taken a bit longer than we’d hoped, but the place is buzzing now and patients and staff alike are delighted.

“Local GPs have been closely involved in all the planning of the hospital’s new services and we’re now working hard to bring in even more services for local people, closer to where they live, and to open the small midwife-led maternity unit by the spring as planned.”

For full story see this week’s Post.