Beccles Medical Centre has announced that expansion plans will be ready to view in the spring, following approval of funding from East Suffolk Council.
The £4.2 million project aims to add more consultation rooms and a training area to the practice, which currently serves around 20,000 patients.
Funding for the extension was agreed in October through the council’s Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), a scheme that collects money from housing developers to support local services. Mr David Lewis, the practice’s business manager, said to the BBC: “We will have planning in, in the early part of 2026 and then into 2027, hopefully we will start to see some things happening.”
The expansion will involve a two-storey extension at the rear of the red-brick building, creating nine to ten additional consulting rooms, a meeting room, and a training room for GPs. Parking, which is currently limited, will also be redesigned. Mr Lewis explained: “Overall, we hope to create about another 40 spaces.” Plans include altering the front entrance to add side parking and reconfiguring the existing car park to accommodate more vehicles.
Dr Tim Morton, who has been a GP at the centre for 36 years, said to the BBC that the expansion will future-proof the practice. “We’ve got huge housing development plans around the area which we foresee will increase the practice population by a quarter,” he said.
He added that as a major teaching and training practice, the additional rooms would allow them to continue providing training while meeting the needs of a growing patient population.
The expansion coincides with plans for the Beccles and Worlingham garden neighbourhood, which could deliver over 1,000 new homes in the area. Mark Packard, East Suffolk Council’s cabinet member for planning and coastal management, was quoted by the BBC saying: “In October, we approved £4.2m in CIL funding to expand Beccles Medical Centre and help mitigate the local population increase from the proposed Beccles and Worlingham Garden Neighbourhood development.
“We will also continue to work closely with Beccles Medical Centre and the Integrated Care Board on their plans for expansion.”
The development is expected to ensure the practice can maintain high standards of care and training while accommodating future growth in the local community.
