NO more patients can be accepted by over-stretched Wellington Medical Centre since its merger with the now-closed Luson Surgery, NHS Somerset has admitted.

The shock revelation came in responses to planning applications for new housing development, with Pegasus Group proposing 250 houses south of the A38 relief road and Gadd Properties redeveloping The Court site with 28 properties.

NHS Somerset said the medical centre did not have capacity to absorb the increase in patients, with the Pegasus development calculated to generate 555 more residents and Gadd’s 62.

NHS Somerset head of planning engagement Malcolm Dicken said the developments would be ‘putting people at risk’ unless Wellington’s medical facilities could be expanded.

Mr Dicken said Pegasus needed to pay £125,275 and Gadd £14,031 toward increasing GP infrastructure to make their proposals acceptable.

He said: “The current combined medical centres have insufficient capacity and will not be able to absorb increased patients.

“The only way to mitigate the impact is to increase the physical capacity of the existing surgeries.

“Without the contribution, the proposed development will put too much strain on the health infrastructure, putting people at risk.

“Waiting times would increase and access to adequate health service would decline, resulting in poorer health outcomes and prolonged health problems.

“Such an outcome is not sustainable as it will have a detrimental socio-economic impact.

“In addition, having no, or limited, access to primary care will have a knock-on effect on secondary healthcare, in particular on emergency department services, as people who cannot access their primary care usually present themselves at the emergency department, adding additional pressure on the already-stretched secondary care.”

The Wellington Weekly has asked both the medical centre and NHS Somerset how GP facilities can be expanded and where patients will go in the meantime, but they were unable to respond at the time of going to press.