Brightlingsea residents looking for medical help and advice are now able to make late evening and Saturday morning appointments at the town’s surgery.

The Colne Medical Centre is now offering additional telephone appointments on Monday and Thursday evenings from 6.30-8pm, with face-to-face clinics on Saturday mornings from 9am to midday. Appointments must be pre-booked, as a walk in service is not available.

This Saturday (April 18) there are appointments available with a GP, as well as minor illness clinics with nurse practitioners and paramedics, and diabetes and healthcare assistants.

Clinics will vary from week to week, but will include:
• GP
• Health care assistant
• Practice nurse
• Minor illness
• Diabetes
• Physiotherapy
• Well woman
• Hypertension

Appointments can be made by submitting an Anima request or asking the reception team at the Station Road centre to do this on your behalf, specifying  that you would like an evening or weekend booking.

In future weeks the centre  will be running additional accessible clinic sessions with reduced noise and sensory stimulation, to better support neurodivergent patients and those with similar needs.

The Colte Partnership, of which the centre was a member, was dissolved at the end of March and from April 1 the practice will run as an independent partnership under the leadership of: Drs Samir Patel, Jamie Nightingale and Charles Nkanor.

The practice says the move is an administrative change that will not affect care and services, or patient registration.