King's Daughters Medical Center officials expect a large crowd for Sunday's open house at its new medical plaza on U.S. 23.

The $6.5 million primary care and cardiology complex near the U.S. 23 viaduct will open Monday.

But members of the public will get their first look at it a day earlier from noon to 2 p.m.

Health screenings will be available, along with tours of the building.

No appointment is needed and fasting is not required to get a screening, which includes blood, cholesterol and blood-sugar testing.

With anticipation of a large crowd, overflow parking at the nearby Republic Theater will be available. Shuttle services will be provided from the theater to the medical building.

The Ashland, Ky.-based hospital also will offer lab and X-ray services at the new offices.

The medical building sits on the site of the former Portsmouth General Hospital which was razed a couple of years ago.

The new building is not an urgent care or emergency services office, however.

It houses numerous offices, examination rooms, patient waiting areas, nurses stations and rooms to stabilize patients in emergency conditions.

Those patients then would be transported to a hospital.

The primary care office will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. It will be staffed by Dr. L. Cantey Hasell and Dr. John Gilbert.

Four more doctors probably will be added eventually, hospital officials say.

One cardiology office will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and staffed by Dr. Arshad Ali and Dr. Riaz Baqir.

Dr. John Van Deren, Dr. Chris Epling and Dr. Terence Ross will staff a second cardio office, set to open sometime this summer.

JEFF BARRON can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 236.