We are beyond proud to have held official opening events for two of our new Community Diagnostic Centres this week, in partnership with the NHS.
Tuesday saw the ribbon cutting for Weston Community Diagnostic Centre, located in the very heart of the community, where together with colleagues from University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW), North Somerset Council, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB, NHS England South West and the neighbouring Healthy Living Centre, we celebrated the availability of thousands more diagnostic tests. Since first opening in April 2024, 5,000 local people in Weston-super-Mare and local North Somerset have benefitted from additional local diagnostic tests and the feedback has been fantastic - we look forward to offering up to 15,000 diagnostic tests over the coming year. Services available include CT, MRI, X-Ray, Ultrasound, Dexa, Echo and Respiratory Physiology Tests and previously, patients may have had to travel to Weston General Hospital, or even as far as Bristol for diagnosis, so this centre really is a wonderful addition to the community. As the sun shone (and we narrowly missed the rain) we took time to reflect on the great working relationships we have with all our partners and it was a really special day.
Just 24 hours later, on Wednesday, we held an opening event for South East Manchester Community Diagnostic Centre, where together with colleagues from Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS FT and Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, we celebrated the fantastic new facility, located on Crown Point Retail Park in Denton, and how it is already making a huge difference for patients in the local area. Set across two floors, this CDC is home to MRI, CT, Health Screening, DEXA and Echocardiogram, and is now fully open and operational and has already seen 2,000 patients. With 20 staff working here, we expect to see 25,000 patients in the first year alone, supporting local people to have easy and quick access to high quality diagnostic services. During the event, we heard from Andrew Gwynne MP, Minister for Public Health and Prevention, and MP for Gorton and Denton, who was incredibly pleased to see the centre and meet with staff.
Across our nationwide network of 20+ CDCs, we’ve seen the real difference and positive impact that centres like these can bring for patients, focussed on improving health outcomes, so it’s fantastic to be celebrating these two brilliant locations, which really epitomise the essence of what CDCs are all about – taking high quality healthcare services and putting them in the heart of communities, supporting health inequalities and giving local people much easier access outside of hospital settings.
Enormous thanks go to everyone involved in these projects, and of course our InHealth team.
Collabora Consulting Ltd, CSM+Architects, DD Porter, British Land, Actiform, Siemens Healthineers, Canon Medical Systems Corporation, GE HealthCare
