Two rural GP surgeries in Somerset are gearing up for expansion thanks to a significant £102 million NHS funding boost from the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC). Announced in early May 2025, this investment will allow 16 surgeries across Somerset to refurbish and enlarge their facilities, enabling them to serve more patients in line with the NHS Long Term Plan.
Among the recipients of this funding is the Axbridge & Wedmore Medical Practice, which operates from two locations: Houlgate Way in Axbridge, near the Lavender Rise housing development, and St Medard Road in Wedmore, close to the busy B3139 road.
Building work is set to commence in the coming weeks, with plans to add six new clinical rooms across both sites—five at Axbridge and one at Wedmore. Dr Ewart Jackson-Voyzey and Dr Josephine McHugh, GP partners at the practice, shared the news on the surgeries' official Facebook page just before Christmas.
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The doctors confirmed that Axbridge Surgery will receive full funding, while Wedmore Surgery will be funded at 66 percent. The Wedmore and Axbridge Community Health Fund CIO has generously agreed to cover the remaining 34 percent shortfall at Wedmore, amounting to £42,000, as well as the costs of equipping each new clinical room.
These expansions will support the NHS’s emphasis on delivering care closer to patients' communities rather than hospitals, enhancing neighborhood-based healthcare services.
Construction at the Axbridge site will begin in early February and is expected to last up to 12 weeks, with the surgery remaining open throughout. The timing for the Wedmore site work is still to be confirmed, but this location will close temporarily—up to eight weeks—during renovations, with all Wedmore patients being served at Axbridge in the interim.
The GP partners assured patients that appointment availability will not be reduced during the construction period and thanked the community for their support as the surgeries undergo this important development phase.