Notice of upcoming changes to North Chelmsford Healthcare Centre opening hours

We’d like to let you know about an upcoming change to primary care services in your area.

From 2 January 2026, North Chelmsford Healthcare Centre will be open Monday to Friday, 8am–6:30pm. The practice will no longer directly offer late evening and weekend appointments.

What does this mean for patients?

Patients will continue to receive the same high-quality care during core hours. Patients will be able to book late weekday evening (6:30pm–8pm) and Saturday (9am–5pm) appointments at GP practices within the Chelmer Primary Care Network, as they are currently able to do. The practice’s new Beaulieu Healthcare Centre branch will remain open weekdays 9am–5pm.

We’ll be working closely with the practice to ensure patients understand the change and know how to access care outside core hours. A patient engagement period will run from Mon 17 November to Sun 14 December to gather feedback and answer questions.

Why is this happening?

This change is part of a wider review of GP contracts to reduce duplication and ensure consistent, sustainable services across mid and south Essex.

A small number of GP practices in our area operate evening and weekend opening hours via a special type of contract that costs more than the standard GP contract. These longer opening hours duplicate services that local GP groups already provide in the evenings and on Saturdays to the same registered patients through their Primary Care Network.

We’ll be moving these practices to the service specification set out in the NHS contract used by most GPs in our area – the General Medical Services (GMS) contract. The GMS contract sets out core opening hours Monday to Friday, 8am–6:30pm. Moving North Chelmsford Healthcare Centre to this service specification will ensure consistency across our system and help free up funding to support other important local services.

More information about Primary Care Networks is available here, and details of the Primary Care Networks in mid Essex are available here.

www.midandsouthessex.ics.nhs.uk