The NHS’s healthcare offering is set to receive a boost in Liverpool after health leaders agreed a deal for a new community diagnostic centre (CDC).
Acquired from the private sector, local patients will be able to access the new CDC in Paddington Village with local health leaders anticipating the people of Liverpool will be able to benefit from the new NHS estate as early as this summer.
The new centre will provide patients with potentially life-saving tests, checks and scans for everything from musculoskeletal problems all the way to cancer. It will also be second CDC opened and operated by The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre after the Trust launched Clatterbridge Diagnostics in Wirral two years ago.
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust’s Chief Executive, Dr Liz Bishop, said: “People in Liverpool are more likely to experience ill health than the national average so it’s particularly important that they can get the tests they need when symptoms develop.
“This approval for a new community diagnostic centre in Paddington Village is fantastic news for the city and will significantly enhance CT, MRI and ultrasound capacity for the NHS in Liverpool, helping people get diagnosed and access any treatment they need as soon as possible.”
With the region also responsible for the country's first CDC in St Helens, the launch in Paddington Village will be just the latest in a series of capacity-optimising innovations in Cheshire and Merseyside.
Dr Vin Diwakar, NHS England’s Medical Director for Transformation and Secondary Care, explained: “I’m delighted this new community diagnostic centre will be opening in Liverpool, adding to the six existing centres across Cheshire and Merseyside and making it more convenient than ever for local patients to get their tests and checks in convenient, dedicated diagnostic locations.
“These centres are vital to ensure patients receive quicker diagnoses and quicker treatment, with a record number of tests and checks delivered in January helping to improve outcomes for a range of health conditions including cancer and helping us deliver on the next stage of our elective recovery plan to reduce the longest waits for care.”
