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.

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.”