New Rackheath Medical Centre pictured in early-look renders

The Rackheath Medical Centre is roughly a month and a half into development and will deliver 16,000 square feet of "state of the art" facilities to the village once complete.

Ground was broken at the Green Lane East site in late September after many months of delays and digital renders have shown how the modular building will look when it opens next spring.

Permission was given to build the new centre last year (Image: Rackheath Parish Council) It will be made up of 45 brick and panel modules that will be manufactured off-site and transported whole to Green Lane East where they will be moved into position over the course of several days. 

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This construction process will also allow further additions to be attached quickly and efficiently should the demand for more space arise. 

The building is made from 45 prefabricated modules (Image: Rackheath Parish Council) Once fully up and running, it is estimated the hub could treat up to 10,000 patients at any one time, although capacity will be limited to a couple of thousand to begin with.

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Planning permission for the project was granted at the end of last year which came as a relief for councillors Martin Murrell and Fran Whymark who had campaigned for a new medical centre in Rackheath for years. 

Work began in late September after more than a year (Image: Rackheath Parish Council) The population of the village has boomed in recent years as hundreds of new homes have been built, with almost 4,000 more proposed in the coming decade.

Bosses at NHS Norfolk and Waveney were awarded £10.6m in Department of Health and Social Care funding to commence the project last August but work did not start for more than a year because of flooding concerns. 

A stipulation to the funding was that the project be completed by the end of the 2024 financial year but with it only partly finished, NHS bosses are rushing to have the deadline extended.