Campaigners want new medical centre
CAMPAIGNERS are calling for a new medical centre in Caister so elderly and less mobile villagers no longer have to travel into Great Yarmouth for appointments or treatment.
CAMPAIGNERS are calling for a new medical centre in Caister so elderly and less mobile villagers no longer have to travel into Great Yarmouth for appointments or treatment.
Borough councillors Pat Hacon
and Marie Field are appealing to
Great Yarmouth and Waveney NHS
to build a new centre on former
playing fields at the bottom of St Nicholas Drive to take Caister patients registered at Nelson Medical Centre in Yarmouth.
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They say these patients will struggle to get to a new �1.2m medical centre in Cobholm, which is set to house services previously offered by the Nelson
centre.
And they believed a new centre would be able to provide more space and facilities than the village's two existing surgeries in Branford Road and West Road, which would be incorporated at St Nicholas Drive.
An added advantage was that the site was close to a bus route and would have two access roads, St Nicholas Drive and Stone Hill, for ambulances and other traffic.
Cllr Field said: “The village
surgeries are coping all right at the moment, but the facilities are not
big enough. The Nelson Medical
Centre is moving to Cobholm so any residents registered there will either have to travel to Cobholm or try to get registered with one of the village surgeries, putting extra pressure on resources.”
Cllr Hacon said: “It is very sad to see the former playing fields the way they are, especially as I used to live in this area.”
Their call has been backed by
Chris Thompson, practice manager
at the Branford Road surgery, who
said although his staff could
currently cope with the 3,700 patients,
he feared for the future if
Caister's population grew.
He said: “We are almost at capacity
but our list is still open. We are still taking on new patients but we will
run out of space in two or three years' time.”
Jonathan Knights, practice manager at West Road surgery, also believed a new medical centre in the village could be beneficial, but was concerned the suggested site was in the north of the village.
He preferred the site beside the existing Tesco in Yarmouth Road.
A spokesman for NHS Great
Yarmouth and Waveney said: “We
are looking at all of the options
for developing and improving
primary care premises across Great Yarmouth and Waveney and have identified Caister as an area which could benefit.
“Proposals for specific
develop-ments across the entire area will be reviewed once our Estates Strategy has been approved later this year.”
