A long awaited celebration was enjoyed after Independent Member for Lyne Robert Oakeshott officially opened the Lake Cathie Medical Centre on Thursday.

The $1.4 million development was accessible to the public in early December and doctors Lorraine Evans, Sam Nelapati, Kevin Clahane and Graham Carey, alongside other staff have been working vigilantly to support the needs of the community since.

Practice Manager Nicole Lewis-Bain said that although the centre was at full capacity, new staff had been appointed to meet patient needs.

"We've got a new fulltime General Practitioner (Doctor Tony Sheringham starting on January 19. That'll take our complement of fulltime GP's to three so that's great," she said.

Mr Oakeshott said the medical centre had also applied for stage two funding to support future expansion of the facility.

"It's about $400 thousand and if that comes through it will turn this into not only a GP service, but also an allied health service," he said.

"This new practice represents a great boost to primary health care in the Camden Haven and marks an important milestone in the process of expanding community access to GP services.

"It's all about trying to keep as much of the health services out of the hospital to keep the pressure off the emergency departments," he continued.

Mr Oakeshott said he strongly supported a letter written to the Department of Health and Ageing by the North Coast Area Health Service Chief Executive Chris Crawford who requested better financial deals for GP’s moving to the Camden Haven.

"The Hastings GP Network has also lobbied the Government on this issue and Mr Crawford's letter provided a good opportunity to reinforce the message."

"We face a significant challenge to overcome the entrenched shortage of GPs in our region but we have kicked a few early goals and we will continue to work towards achieving better coverage," he said.