PRESS RELEASE : Government to deliver 160 community diagnostic centres a year early [November 2023]

• The government has announced 3 of the final CDC locations which will serve tens of thousands of patients in London, Sussex and Yorkshire – offering patients greater choice on where and how they are treated
• Over 5 million tests, checks and scans have been delivered for patients so far, as part of efforts to bring down waiting lists

The government will meet its target to open 160 community diagnostic centres a year early, the Health and Social Care Secretary will announce today (31 October 2023).

All 160 centres will be open by March 2024, a year ahead of the original March 2025 target – speeding up access to potentially lifesaving tests and checks.

In a speech to the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, he will confirm the rollout of the one-stop shops following the hard work of NHS staff and the government’s efforts to maximise use of the independent sector – backed by the £2.3 billion in capital funding.

Based in a variety of settings including shopping centres, university campuses and football stadiums, 127 of the community healthcare hubs are already open – including 40 brought forward earlier than planned. They offer patients a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home and greater choice on where and how they are treated, reducing the need for hospital visits and helping them to receive potentially life-saving care sooner.

The programme constitutes the largest central cash investment in MRI and CT scanning capacity in the history of the NHS and has already delivered more than 5 million additional tests, checks and scans across the country. The new centres will provide capacity for 9 million more by 2025 as part of the NHS and government’s plan to recover services following the pandemic.

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:

Patients deserve the highest quality care, and community diagnostic centres have been instrumental in speeding up the diagnosis of illnesses like cancer and heart disease to ensure patients are treated more quickly.

I’m delighted we will open 160 CDCs a year early, allowing greater access to high tech scans and diagnostics in communities across England.

This has been made possible by using all capacity available to us and drawing on the independent sector – helping us to cut waiting lists, one of the government’s top 5 priorities.

The government has announced 3 of the final locations which will serve tens of thousands of patients, with all set to open in December 2023. They are:

• Queen Mary’s Sidcup CDC – based in south-east London, the facility will offer CT, MRI and ultrasound checks, along with blood tests – providing at least 58,000 additional checks once fully operational
• Halifax CDC – based at Broad Street Plaza shopping centre in the Yorkshire town, this CDC will offer ultrasound checks, blood tests and heart scans – delivering at least 90,000 tests once fully operational
• Chichester University CDC, Bognor Regis – this facility will offer CT and MRI scans along with ultrasound checks and blood tests to patients, and deliver at least 18,000 additional tests once fully operational

In total, 13 of the CDCs are led by the independent sector, with 8 of these already operational. There are a further 22 CDCs located on the NHS estate where the independent sector is providing diagnostic services. They function like NHS-run CDCs but by making use of the available capacity in the independent sector patients can access additional diagnostic capacity free at the point of need.

Alongside this, as the Prime Minister originally announced in May, hundreds of thousands of NHS patients who have been waiting longer than 40 weeks for treatment will today be offered the opportunity to travel to a different hospital as part of ambitious measures set out in the elective recovery plan.

Any patient who has been waiting longer than 40 weeks and does not have an appointment within the next 8 weeks will be contacted by their hospital via letter, text or email. The 400,000 eligible patients will then be able to submit their details, including how far they are willing to travel.

Thanks to this and wider measures, the government successfully met the first target in its elective recovery plan to virtually eliminate waits of over 2 years and has cut 18-month waits by over 90% from the peak in September 2021.

Earlier this year, the government’s Elective Recovery Taskforce set out a plan to maximise independent sector capacity to treat NHS patients more quickly. Chaired by Health Minister Will Quince and made up of academics and experts from the NHS and independent sector, the taskforce looked for ways to go further to bust the COVID-19 backlogs and reduce waiting times for patients.

Its recommendations will ensure patients have the right to receive care at a provider of their choice, encourage the system to work together to deliver a post-pandemic recovery, and monitor the contribution of the independent sector to delivering health services and developing the workforce.

Earlier this month, the government also invested £200 million to boost resilience in the NHS and help patients get the care they need as quickly as possible this winter. The new funding came after the Prime Minister and Health and Social Care Secretary met clinical leaders and NHS chiefs to drive forward planning to ease pressures in urgent and emergency care while protecting waiting list targets this winter. Alongside this, £40 million was invested to bolster social care capacity and improve discharge from hospital.

Background information

DHSC and NHS England count CDCs delivering tests and accessing national funding as open. This may include temporary sites while the full CDC is completed.

We are now recruiting for an independent chair of the choice panel, who will help promote compliance with rules on patient choice.

In September, NHS England confirmed that 4 other CDCs had been approved – 2 in Wiltshire, one in Thanet and one in Cheshire.

The full list of open CDCs can be found below:

• Andover CDC
• Barking Community Hospital CDC
• Barnsley Glassworks CDC
• Bexhill CDC
• Bishop Auckland CDC
• Blaydon CDC
• Bolton CDC
• Bradford District and Craven CDC
• Bath Somerset and Wiltshire Banes Locality CDC
• Buckland Community Hospital CDC
• Cannock Chase CDC
• CDC Poole @Dorset Health Village with spoke CDCs:
  • Poole, Beales CDC
  • South Walks CDC
  • Boscombe AECC CDC
  • Weymouth CDC
• CIOS Bodmin CDC with spoke CDC:
  • West Cornwall CDC
• Clacton CDC
• Clatterbridge Diagnostics CDC with spoke CDCs:
  • Ellesmere Port CDC
  • Liverpool Women’s Hospital CDC
• Paddington CDC
• Corbett CDC with spoke CDCs:
  • Guest CDC
  • Merry Hill CDC
• Corby CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Kings Heath CDC
• Coventry City Community CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Rugby St Cross CDC
• Crawley Collaborative CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Caterham Dene CDC
• Devon Exeter Nightingale CDC
• East Somerset CDC
• Eltham Community Hospital CDC
• [Ely CDC (hub) – not open yet] with spoke CDC:
  • Wisbech CDC
• Finchley Memorial Hospital CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Wood Green CDC
• Florence Nightingale Community Hospital CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Sir Robert Peel CDC
• Gloucestershire Quayside CDC
• Grantham CDC
• Hereford City CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Kidderminster Treatment Centre CDC
• Hinckley CDC
• Huddersfield CDC
• Ilkeston Community Hospital CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Whitworth Hospital CDC
• Island CDC
• [James Paget CDC – not open yet] with spoke CDC:
  • East Norfolk CDC
• Leeds CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Armley Moor Health Centre CDC
• Leicester CDC
• Leigh CDC
• Lymington New Forest Hospital CDC with spoke CDCs:
  • Hythe CDC
  • Romsey CDC
• Manchester and Trafford CDC
• Mansfield CDC
• Mile End Hospital CDC
• Milford Community Hospital CDC
• Montagu Hospital CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Rotherham Diagnostics CDC
• New QEII Hospital CDC
• [North Bedfordshire CDC (hub) – not open yet] with spoke CDC:
  • Whitehouse Health Centre CDC
• North Bristol CDC
• [North Lincolnshire CDC (hub) – not open yet] with spoke CDCs:
  • Askham Bar Community Care Centre CDC
  • East Riding Community Hospital CDC
  • Selby War Memorial CDC
• North Solihull CDC
• Northern Care Alliance Oldham CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Salford CDC
• [NWL Ealing CDC (hub) – not open yet] with spoke CDC:
  • Wembley CDC
  • Willesden CDC
• Oxford CDC
• Penrith CDC
• Portsmouth CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Fareham CDC
  • Oak Park CDC
• Preston Healthport CDC
• Queen Mary’s Hospital Roehampton CDC with spoke CDCs:
  • Kingston CDC
  • Purley CDC
• Queen Victoria Hospital CDC
• Rossendale CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Burnley General Hospital Spoke CDC
• Royal South Hants CDC
• [Slough CDC (hub) not open yet] with spoke CDC:
  • Heatherwood CDC
• Somerset West CDC with spoke CDCs:
  • Bridgwater CDC
  • South Petherton CDC
  • Taunton Central CDC
  • West Mendip CDC
  • Yeovil CDC
• South Warwickshire CDC
• Southlands Hospital CDC with spoke CDCs:
  • Bognor Regis WMH CDC
• Brighton CDC
• St Helens CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Southport CDC
• Shrewsbury Telford and Wrekin CDC
• Swale CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Medway CDC
• [Tees Valley CDC – not yet open] with spoke CDCs:
  • Lawson Street CDC
  • Friarage CDC
  • Hartlepool CDC
  • Redcar CDC
• Thurrock CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Braintree CDC
• Victoria Infirmary Northwich CDC
• Warrington and Halton CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Shopping City CDC
• Warwickshire North CDC
• Washwood Heath CDC
• West Berkshire Community Hospital CDC with spoke CDCs:
  • Amersham CDC
  • Bracknell CDC
• West Essex CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Bishop’s Stortford CDC
• West Kent CDC
• Westmorland CDC with spoke CDCs:
  • Crossland Day Hospital CDC
  • Heysham CDC
• Weston CDC
• Whitegate Drive CDC with spoke CDC:
  • Fleetwood CDC
• Woking Community Hospital CDC