A new hospital unit will be built on the coast - with hopes it could 'reduce waiting times for patients'.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council has approved an application by the James Paget University Hospital to build a community diagnostic centre at the Cranbrook Centre at Northgate Hospital.

It is hoped the new unit, employing 40 staff, will "significantly improve healthcare services" in and around Great Yarmouth by shortening waiting list times and reducing travel.

The refurbished and extended building will provide a CT scanner, five consulting rooms and six treatment rooms as well as two echo rooms with associated ancillary accommodation.

The application will redevelop a small area of the wider Northgate Hospital site.

According to documents submitted with the application, there are "broad ranges of deprivation" in the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System (ICS) - with both Norwich and Great Yarmouth being hotspots. 

In April, it was revealed that the James Paget hospital had the second longest waiting times for routine treatments for patients in England.