At a Glance
- Over £360,000 secured for GP surgery upgrades across mid and south Essex
- 15 new clinical and consulting rooms being created
- Up to 60,000 additional appointments per year expected
- Works due to be completed by 31 March 2026
Patients at GP practices across mid and south Essex will benefit from improved access to care and improvements in their local surgeries, thanks to over a quarter of a million pounds of national investment.
NHS Mid and South Essex supported eight local GP practices to apply for the national funding from NHS England to support improvements to their buildings, creating additional clinical space and enabling practices to provide more appointments.
Over £360,000 has been secured to upgrade and convert existing space in local surgeries which will be used to create 15 new clinical and consulting rooms across the eight surgeries.
The creation of these additional rooms will help these practices to deliver up to an estimated 60,000 additional appointments per year. This boost will help practices to offer more patient services, and create space for GPs, nurses and wider healthcare teams to offer a wider range of appointments.
William Guy, Director of Primary Care for NHS Mid and South Essex, said:
“This funding provides a welcome boost that will help local practices to create more room for GPs, nurses and wider primary care teams to work from. The extra clinical and consulting rooms created will help these practices to deliver thousands more appointments each year and expand the range of services available closer to home.”
The GP practices have received funding to make building improvements this year, with works widely expected to be completed by 31 March 2026.
- Aegis Medical Centre in Basildon will use the funding to create one additional consulting room from existing space. This will increase the number of available clinical and consulting rooms from four to five and enabling an estimated 4,000 additional appointments per year.
- Dr Malik & Partners at Kent Elms Health Centre in Southend is using the funding to convert existing space into a new clinical room that will bring the practice’s total to four clinical and consulting rooms and enable an estimated 4,000 additional appointments per year.
- Fryerns Surgery in Basildon received funding to convert a storeroom into clinical space. This will increase the number of available clinical and consulting rooms from three to four and enable an estimated 4,000 additional appointments per year.
- Rivermead Gate Surgery in Chelmsford will use the funding to add three new clinical rooms in addition to the six rooms already in use and enable an estimated 12,000 additional appointments annually. The space had previously been used for administrative purposes.
- Robert Frew Medical Centre in Wickford received funding to convert existing space into three new consulting and virtual consulting rooms. This will bring the total number of clinical and consulting rooms up to 18 and enable an estimated 12,000 additional appointments annually.
- Rushbottom Lane Surgery in Benfleet received funding to convert existing space into one additional clinical room and one virtual consulting room, enabling staff to offer more face-to-face, video and telephone consultations. It brings the number of clinical and consulting rooms up to 18 and will enable an estimated 8,000 additional appointments per year.
- Trinity Medical Practice in Chelmsford received funding to convert existing space into three new rooms – a room for Health Care Assistants to provide a wide range of patient services, a bloodletting room, and a virtual consulting room for video and telephone consultations. This almost doubles the number of rooms for patient services, jumping from 4 rooms to 7, and will enable an estimated 12,000 additional appointments per year.
- Writtle Surgery in Chelmsford received funding to convert existing space into a new clinical room that will bring the practice’s total to eight clinical and consulting rooms and enable an estimated 4,000 additional appointments per year.
Further national funding opportunities will be available next year for local GP practices to apply for. NHS Mid and South Essex will be supporting all interested GP practices, to apply for this funding which improves access to care for patients.