TAFT, Calif. -- Kern County's west side is about to get some much-needed medical services. The West Side Healthcare District will open a new and larger urgent care center next week in Taft.

The goal is to fill a gap in health care left when Taft's hospital shut down about seven years ago.

"To me, it's exciting," district president Chuck Hagstrom told Eyewitness News. "It's an opportunity for us to finally show something that we've done."

The district just bought the old Taft Hospital for about $1.2 million, according to Hagstrom.

The new urgent care is going into a just-refurbished building that had housed a wellness center at one end of the hospital campus.

The hospital was opened by the district in 1946, they sold it to Catholic Healthcare West in 1998. But, the hospital was closed in 2003, after losing too much money.

That left a painful gap in medical services for a large area.

"We had no health care left in the community," Hagstrom said. "We had doctors, but no urgent care, no emergency services."

He called that ground zero.

By January 2004, the health district managed to open an urgent care in a small office, but Hagstrom said it's been too small. He said at times the urgent care gets up to 80 patients a day, and that's a squeeze.

"It's really not conducive to these types of numbers, so this was important to go from three exam rooms to six exam rooms, basically doubling our capacity," Hagstrom said.

On Wednesday, Tyson Noyes stood outside the little clinic with his sick son.

"He has a cold and an ear ache," Noyes said.

But, it was so crowded in the clinic, they were waiting outside. He thinks the new and bigger clinic is important.

In addition to more exam rooms, the new urgent care center will have x-ray facilities, ultra-sound, a lab and triage station. The clinic has about 5,000 square feet.

But, that still leaves the rest of the hospital building empty and boarded up. Hagstrom said the district will have to decide about that.

"There's a possibility of restoring the old hospital, but there's also the potential of (demolishing) the building, but putting in a more modern, state-of-the art facility."

The district gets property taxes for funding. And Hagstrom said the new urgent care comes from those funds. They didn't ask for bonds or loans.

The urgent care is now set to open next Wednesday. It's expected to be open 12 hours a day, an improvement over about nine hours a day of operation for the smaller clinic.

Hagstrom says the new facility is important for the west side, and something the district worked hard for.

"We have something to show, a tangible product that people can see that it is here, and tax-payer money is going to good uses in the community."