Staff at a "cramped" town centre GP practice have set out how moving to a new £4.9m build could help patients.

Workers at St James Medical Practice, in King's Lynn, urged members of Norfolk County Council's health and overview and scrutiny committee to support plans to move the practice from County Court Road, King's Lynn, to a new surgery on land at Edward Benefer Way.

Representatives from the practice and Primary Care Trust said the current building was small, and did not meet standards for infection control and disability access.

Practice manager Kathy Foley said in 2020 there had been eight occasions where sewage has come up into two of the surgery's clinical rooms due to collapsed drains.

Alongside the drains she listed draughty windows, damp and a lack of space for new services and treating Covid-19 patients, with the latter seen in a portable cabin in its car park.

The practice manager said: "The impact it will have if this does not go ahead is going to have serious consequences on primary care provision within King's Lynn because we will have to close our list and look to remove patients."

The practice, which has 20,000 patients, has looked at 17 sites across the King's Lynn area with its preferred site on Norfolk County Council land off Edward Benefer Way.

Howard Martin, from Norfolk and Waveney CCG, said the St James move would be financed with £250,000 of NHS funding and £4.9m sourced from a third party developer.

Mr Martin said: "It needs to be registered there is a real risk to both sources of funding in the event this development is delayed."

The CCG has also has £5m of unallocated funding which could be put forward for a surgery in South Lynn.

The plans were supported by many councillors including ward member David Collis, who said the current facilities were "unsatisfactory" and making it hard for staff to provide the service required.

A patient survey highlighted access to the site was the main concern.

South Lynn representative Alexandra Kemp suggested two surgeries needed to be built.

She said: "We can't have a situation where we are depriving people of getting to the doctors."