FED-UP residents have demanded answers about whether a health centre will be built in Wivenhoe – ten years after it was promised.

The NHS came up with plans in 2001, but they were postponed four years ago.

The proposals were put on hold again last summer when the Government announced it would be making radical changes to the NHS.

NHS North East Essex has not confirmed if the GP surgery and pharmacy will be built next to the fire station in Colchester Road, Wivenhoe.

The town is only served by the Wivenhoe Surgery, in The Avenue, which was built for 5,500 patients, but now has 9,000 on its books.

Neil Lodge, speaking at Wivenhoe Town Council, said: “We want to know if Wivenhoe is going to get a medical centre or not.

“Our only doctor’s surgery is still in a little bungalow and it is not able to adequately service the town.”

“It is not fair on the doctors, or the patients, and we are getting increasingly fed up with the situation. It has been going on for too long.”

Dr Laurel Spooner, a doctor at Stanway Surgery and NHS advisor for MP Bernard Jenkin, who has been behind the project, said: “It is clear this is an urgent case. Wivenhoe is a one-surgery town. Everyone agree it is at the top of the list, but the recent reforms came along and it changed the bureaucracy people have to go through.

“Everyone, including the surgery team and the patients, have had to be very patient and understanding and it is extremely frustrating and depressing for them.

“I was surprised and saddened to hear it was actually ten years since the plans were first approved.

“Our message to residents would be, don’t give up, we have not forgotten you.”

Dr Spooner said it was hoped a decision about the centre would be made by the NHS in the next few months.

Adrian Marr, deputy chief executive for NHS North East Essex, said: “We are committed to delivering improved community-based services in Wivenhoe.”