Patients at St James Health Centre have expressed concern at NHS plans to ‘truncate’ their GP practice by putting more health services into a new facility that is expected to open next year, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter
Patients at a Walthamstow health centre say they are frustrated by plans to share their dedicated new facility with another practice, as part of a long-rumbling saga.
Those registered with the St James Health Centre were temporarily relocated to the Firs Medical Centre in Stephenson Road once their contract with the NHS ended in October.
NHS North East London (NEL), the integrated care board (ICB) that oversees the practice, initially said they would move into a purpose-built centre in Jazz Yard – but the fit-out is yet to commence, and the move has been pushed back to “early 2026”.
After a series of delays, patients say they are now “dismayed” by fresh NHS proposals for them to share the new facility with another practice.
Philip Herlihy, a longstanding patient at St James, said: “A practice is more than a random collection of people in a space. It’s an organisation, and one that hasn’t come about by chance.
“It’s the outcome of years of thought and work by the partnership team – in our case [owners] Prakash and Shalini Kawar – who are the core of the St James practice. And it’s their vision that’s being cruelly truncated, to their own detriment, and to the detriment of the people of Walthamstow.”
A spokesperson for NHS NEL said it was “exploring other options” to ensure the new building was utilised entirely.
He said: “Unfortunately, due to St James Medical Practice being unable to take all of the primary care space at Jazz Yard, we have had to explore other options to make this development financially viable.
“We believe that increasing the primary care presence at Jazz Yard will ensure that space is used effectively while widening the range of services available to patients in the west Walthamstow area, in line with the NHS neighbourhood model of care.”
He added that the ICB was “aware” of patients’ concerns about the move and would be responding directly to them.
He continued: “We understand that delays to the move have caused uncertainty, but we have been working closely with the practice, including providing resilience funding, to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum and that its patients have continuity of care.
“Along with local partners, including Waltham Forest Council, we will continue to support St James Medical Practice while we look forward to the completion of the new Jazz Yard development.”
Louise Mitchell, the council’s cabinet member for health, said the town hall “fully expects” the NHS to work with both patients and their practices.
She said: “Local people rightly expect high-quality health services that meet their needs to be located near to their homes. We are supporting our NHS partners by offering space at the Jazz Yard site to deliver this objective.
“We would expect the NHS to lead work to fully engage with the practices concerned, as well as the patients they serve, to demonstrate that the plans meet the clinical needs of the community and improve health services for local people. We will raise these concerns directly with the NHS.”
The St James Health Centre closed the doors to its previous practice in October after 30 years. The Kawars had been unsuccessful in negotiating a lease extension with Waltham Forest Council, the NHS and landlord YourTribe.
YourTribe plans to turn the site into student halls, comprising 224 rooms in buildings between three to six storeys tall.
Work is currently underway and the former health centre, which dated back to the 1950s, has been demolished.
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