MANTEO, N.C. — News 3 is following through on the issue of primary care access on the Outer Banks. The area’s largest health system, Outer Banks Health, is planning to double the size of its Manteo family medicine practice.
Crews are hard at work clearing the area next to the current building on Amanda Street, off U.S. 64, to make room for the expansion.
The building dates to 1974 when Dr. Walter Holton, one of the first full-time physicians in Dare County, began practicing in Manteo. The plans will add to the current building, providing room for more providers and better patient care.
Outer Banks
New program aims to recruit more doctors, medical providers to the Outer Banks
“We’re going to be able to grow,” said Lynne Miles, regional administrator for operations at Outer Banks Health. "We have three physicians there right now. So that extra space allows us to add at least two more providers into that practice for our patients."
The expansion would double the size of the clinic and reorient the entrance toward the highway, providing more access. It will also add a behavioral telehealth room and a wellness office.
The plans by Outer Banks Health are being welcomed by people in Manteo. Leaders established a task force in 2022, after a clinic closed, forcing thousands of patients to seek new providers.
Malcolm Fearing, who leads the task force, said the plans add to the momentum started when the Manteo Community Health Center opened last year and the establishment of a preceptor hub by the North Carolina Medical Society Foundation, which will bring medical students to the Outer Banks to help fill care gaps.
"If you remember just 18 months or two years ago, that's not where we were in our community, for whatever reason that is,” Fearing said. “But today we're moving in a different direction and it's exciting."
Watch previous coverage: New program aims to recruit more doctors, medical providers to the Outer Banks
Fearing said there is still work to be done. Outer Banks Health has a large waitlist for primary care access, even though it has been able to add six new providers over the past year. It currently serves more than 16,000 primary care patients at its five primary care practices.
"We definitely want you to get on that waitlist now so that when you have that need for care, be it six months from now, a year from now that you have an established relationship with a provider that's there and able to take care of you," Miles said.
Joseph Hawkins is among the patients who lost care in 2022. He said while he has a doctor now, there can still be long waits for care.
“I think we need more doctors for sure,” said Joseph Hawkins of Roanoke Island. “Now if we make an appointment, with a local primary doctor, it will take anywhere from two to three weeks to make that appointment.”
Outer Banks Health's primary care access line can be reached at 252-449-4540.
The new Manteo facility is expected to open in phases, with full completion planned for the summer of 2025.
