A new £10m Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) is to be developed at Leigh Infirmary.
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been chosen as one of seven locations for the new community diagnostic centres (CDCs), which are hoped to be able to help with COVID backlogs, diagnose patients more quickly and meet future demands on the NHS.
WWL’s Chief Executive, Silas Nicholls said: “We are delighted to announce our ambitious plan to develop and progress a £10million Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) at Leigh Infirmary. We received formal approval in early September and we're looking forward to progressing this exciting initiative at pace.
“The new CDC, which is just one part of our plans to further invest in services at Leigh Infirmary, will be an expansion of our current services and will provide a modern ‘one stop shop’ diagnostics and healthcare facility. The CDC will increase the range of diagnostic tests available at Leigh and offer an increase in diagnostic capacity. This will improve access to diagnostics, supporting faster diagnosis and treatment, all of which is fantastic news for our patients.
“Our aim is to become a premier centre for rehabilitation, diagnostics and outpatient services.”
Building work on the new CDC is set to commence next year, with CT and MRI scanning facilities already available at the Trust’s Wrightington and Wigan sites, will now being installed at Leigh. In combining these services within a single centre, alongside the existing comprehensive endoscopy service at Leigh Infirmary, quicker diagnostic facilities will be provided to the people of Leigh and beyond treating with 40,000 additional patients potentially being treated per year.
CDCs reduce the number of hospital visits and reduce waiting times for patients by diverting people away from hospitals – so hospitals can focus on treating urgent patients while the diagnostic centres focus on tackling the backlog for tests and checks. They are more convenient for patients and more efficient, with patients less likely to have their tests cancelled.
NHS national director of elective recovery, Sir James Mackey, said: “These seven ‘one stop shops’ are the next step in our elective recovery plan and a welcome addition to the 92 existing community diagnostic centres, which have already delivered more than 1.7 million tests and checks in just over a year.
“Our elective recovery plan set out how the NHS will deliver nine million more tests and checks a year by 2025 and the work of these diagnostic centres, some in convenient spots including shopping centres, are excellent examples of the innovative work being done across the health service to ensure patients get the tests and checks they need as quickly as possible.”