A GP service at a new seven-day walk-in health centre in Yarmouth is to be run by a Kent-based company.Malling Health LLP has been selected by NHS Yarmouth and Waveney to operate the centre, which will be based in portable buildings on the former Greyfriars Clinic in Howard Street South from April.

A GP service at a new seven-day walk-in health centre in Yarmouth is to be run by a Kent-based company.

Malling Health LLP has been selected by NHS Yarmouth and Waveney to operate the centre, which will be based in portable buildings on the former Greyfriars Clinic in Howard Street South from April.

The site is expected to have 3,500 patients registered within five years and 18,000 people are set to use the centre as walk-in patients each year.

As well as having GPs, the centre will offer blood and ECG tests, minor surgery, cervical screening, drug and alcohol services and advice on losing weight and stopping smoking.

Tom Reichhelm, medical director at Malling Health, said: “We are a GP-run organisation which strives to adhere to traditional values, while at the same time embracing new challenges.”

The new centre is part of a national scheme to provide 150 new health clinics and the government is providing �800,000 to help set up and run the Howard Street South site, which will be open 12 hours a day.

Michael Stonard, chief executive of NHS Yarmouth and Waveney, said: “We are confident that Malling Health's business plan fully incorporates the central ethos of the new health centre - to increase access to quality primary care services.”

The temporary buildings will house the health facilities for three years while a permanent centre is being built next door.