A new "super-surgery" for north west Ipswich and the Claydon area is due to open in spring 2024 after Suffolk health chiefs confirmed the development is to go ahead.
The new building for the Cardinal Medical Practice will replace the Deben Road and Chesterfield Drive surgeries in Ipswich and will also take on many patients from the now-closed Claydon practice.
The Norwich Road site of the practice - near the junction with Valley Road and Chevalier Street - will remain open.
The new surgery will be built on the corner of the former Tooks Bakery site near the junction of Norwich Road and Bury Road on land owned by Ipswich council which has become a new estate of affordable homes.
The borough will build and own the actual building and will lease it to the Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group which will equip it for the Cardinal Medical Practice.
The new surgery has been on the cards for many years - it was first proposed in the middle of the last decade and was formally given the go-ahead by health bosses in March 2017.
Since then there have been other changes to health provision in the area with the formal merger of existing practices last year.
But the news should be encouraging for patients worried about primary health cover in the area.
A spokesman for the CCG said: “Everyone involved is committed to the building of a new primary care centre on the former Took’s Bakery site.
“While there remain a number of factors that could influence the completion date, we anticipate the project will be delivered by spring 2024.”
Ipswich councillor Colin Kreidewolf is responsible for its property portfolio and welcomed the news that a date had been announced. He said: "It might sound quite a long way off, but actually that isn't that long to get everything agreed and built.
"This is good news - we'll be working with the CCG to get it completed."
He said there was already an agreement with Ipswich Buses for routes to be changed to ensure passengers would have easy access to the new health centre.
The site is in the Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency of former health minister Dr Dan Poulter who has been supporting efforts to improve health provision in the area.
He said: "It is disappointing that it has taken so long to get to this position but I am pleased we finally seem to be getting there. I have spoken to the CCG recently and I was encouraged by what they said.
"Hopefully the surgery will be able to offer services that are currently only available at the hospital which would be very good for local people."
He also felt that progress was being made in discussions about a long-term solution to GP provision in the Claydon and Barham area which could see a new surgery open in that part of the county.
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