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Funding Secured for Two Felixstowe GP Practices

Felixstowe’s Haven Health Surgery is to receive more than £600,000 in funding towards investment in its facilities to help meet new demand in the town.

Another £61,641.68 will fund the conversion of four rooms at the Grove Medical Centre into clinical accommodation, with a large upstairs office also divided to include a clinical room and telephone consultation area.
They are two of three surgeries in the district to benefit after East Suffolk Council allocated £1.5million to ensure that residents can access improved health facilities in areas of housing growth.

The allocations were included in a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Spending Report, approved by Cabinet on September 3 and presented to Full Council on September 25, detailing how funding levied against new housing development is used to help deliver essential infrastructure.

Funding worth £611,569.15 has been allocated to Suffolk Primary Care for the expansion of primary care at Haven Health Surgery, with the remaining £22,000 secured through other funding, to include an additional five clinical rooms and help futureproof future service delivery.

The project, supported by Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB), will help offer up to 60 additional appointments per 1,000 patients per week and deliver more services in community settings.

Dr Paul Driscoll, a GP partner with Suffolk Primary Care, said:

“We are delighted that East Suffolk Council has approved our bid for CIL funding so that this important extension can take place. It will give us a valuable opportunity to reconfigure the building so that it works more effectively for our patients. The extra space will also mean we can host additional services.

“Importantly, it will also ensure we can continue to meet demand in the future and offer high quality, accessible services to our patients as the population of Felixstowe increases.”

Maddie Baker-Woods, Director of the Ipswich and East Suffolk Alliance, welcomed confirmation of the ESC funding. She said:

“We are grateful to East Suffolk Council for approving these CIL applications to support the development of health services in Felixstowe.

“This investment, along with other projects being delivered in the area, will see a total of 14 new rooms in the locality to increase capacity for patient services.

“Work is already underway on these projects, which we hope will be delivered by the end of Spring 2025 and help enhance healthcare provision for the local community.”

Councillor Kay Yule, East Suffolk Council Cabinet member for Planning and Coastal Management, said:

“We want to ensure that the right infrastructure is put in the right place at the right time. So, it is pleasing to see the reinvestment of money levied on developers building nearby homes back into the community to support the expansion of local GP practices to help meet increased demand.

“There is a well-documented need for housing across the country, but as work continues to meet that need, we must consider the resulting need to grow capacity in services like health and social care. It is important that our larger housing developers help to financially meet that need.”

Please find the full press release here. Find out more about CIL here.