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Tens of thousands of patients across England to get quicker access to life-saving tests as 19 additional community diagnostic centres (CDCs) to open this year.
Tens of thousands of patients across the country will benefit from quicker access to tests, with 19 new community diagnostic centres which will perform 1.1 million tests, checks and scans every year set to open later this year.
CDCs are central to the government’s elective recovery plan and the Prime Minister’s priority of reducing NHS waiting lists to tackle the backlogs in the NHS and social care, providing additional capacity for potentially lifesaving tests including cancer screening.
New data shows 92 operational CDCs have already significantly bolstered NHS capacity as part of the most ambitious catch-up plan in NHS history, delivering an additional 3 million checks since the programme started in in July 2021, helping patients to get the diagnosis they need as quickly as possible so they can access the treatment they need where and when they need it.
The one-stop shops, backed by £2.3 billion in government funding, are based in convenient locations such as shopping centres and football stadiums allowing people to access tests more quickly.
The CDCs house a range of equipment including MRI, CT, X-ray and ultrasound scanners and offer services including blood tests or heart rhythm and blood pressure monitoring.
The 19 approved new centres will be rolled out across the country, including Milton Keynes, Nottingham and Dorset. Once referred by a GP, pharmacist or hospital, patients can access CDCs in their local area to get any concerning symptoms checked out.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:
Rapid diagnosis offers reassurance to patients, reduces waiting lists, and, crucially, saves lives.
CDCs have been fundamental to this effort, delivering over 3 million extra tests which are helping to diagnose conditions from cancer to lung disease more quickly across the country.
The new centres will take us even further, utilising cutting-edge MRI, CT and X-ray machines to transform the way we deliver care closer to people’s homes helping tens of thousands of people.
NHS National Director of Elective Recovery, Sir James Mackey, said:
The NHS’s ambitious elective recovery plan, published just over a year ago, had these innovative ‘one-stop shops’ at its heart. Since then they have played a key role in helping us virtually eliminate the number of people waiting more than 2 years for treatment and keeping the NHS on track to do the same for people waiting over 18 months by the end of April, with the centres - often based in convenient places such as in shopping centres, high streets and community hospitals - now having delivered an incredible 3 million tests and checks.
These 19 new centres will boost access for tens of thousands more patients and build on the great work of NHS staff in recovering services, helping the NHS deliver an extra 9 million tests a year by 2025 - an increase in capacity of more than a quarter on pre-pandemic levels.
Once fully operational, the new CDCs will plan to deliver over 1.1 million tests, checks and scans a year.
The facilities will take the total of approved CDCs - including those that are already operational and those still set to be rolled out - to 143. This is over 80% of the government’s ambition to roll out up to 160 centres across the country by 2025 to perform up to 9 million additional tests a year.
Since the first of these CDCs opened they have already played a valuable role in helping the NHS to reduce the backlogs, and in November 2022 CDCs delivered approximately 5% of all diagnostic activity.
Just over a year ago, the government and NHS set out the Elective Recovery Plan to recover NHS services and give patients greater control over their own health. Significant progress has since been made - with healthcare workers virtually eliminating the longest waits for treatment and cutting 18-month waits by more than 50%.
These new CDCs will build on this effort, ensuring that patients get access to the best medical advice when and where they need it while tackling healthcare disparities across the country.
Dozens of new surgical spaces are also being created to bring down waiting times. An estimated 780,000 additional surgeries and outpatient appointments will be provided at 37 new surgical hubs, 10 expanded existing hubs and 81 new theatres.
The government has also set up an Elective Recovery Taskforce to unlock spare capacity in the independent sector to tackle the backlogs. It is made up of academics and experts from the NHS and independent sector, who will help deliver on the remaining targets in the Elective Recovery Plan - such as virtually eliminating 18-month waits by April 2023 and waits of longer than a year by March 2025.
Twelve of the new facilities are spoke sites, which deliver more diagnostic services in addition to a standard CDC.
They can use commercial estate, or existing non-acute NHS estate such as community healthcare settings.
The full list of approved CDCs is as follows:
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