St James Medical Centre in Lynn to move to South Wootton - Eastern Daily Press

Published: 12:33 PM November 8, 2021

A new GP surgery which would enable a practice to taken on up to 5,500 more patients to meet future demand has been given the go-ahead, despite fears it could be in the wrong place.

West Norfolk council's planning committee agreed a proposal to move the St James Medical Centre from County Court Road to a new site off Edward Benefer Way, near the junction with Hall Lane in South Wootton.

A report to councillors said: "The primary care facility will replace the current St James Medical Centre practice in town and will also act to support existing people living in South Wootton and Gaywood and has capacity to accommodate the future developments in the northern half of Kings Lynn."

Dr Prabir Mitra, executive partner at the practice, told the planning meeting it was no longer fit for purpose.

In a letter of support, the Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "St James practice is the most constrained practice in West Norfolk, in terms of capacity to register new patients. 

"It is estimated that with current and future demands from planned housing developments in the area, there could be 5,500 new registrations. The proposed new St James primary care building will meet existing and future demand to the north of Kings Lynn and a second proposed new facility for the south of the town, site yet to be determined will meet existing and future demand to the south of the town."

St James medical practice in King's Lynn - Credit: David Bale

King's Lynn Civic Society objected. It said: "The new location may be more convenient for any St James' patients that live in South Wootton, but we imagine the great majority of existing patients will be town centre and South Lynn residents.

"The location will make access to the surgery heavily car dependent and very likely to generate a significant increase in local car journeys on already busy roads."

Concerns were also expressed over whether the new location was the right one for patients from West Winch and West Lynn. 

South Wootton, North Wootton and Castle Rising parish councils expressed concerns over traffic and called for an independent transport review.

Councillors followed their officers' recommendation to give the surgery the go-ahead.

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