Publish date: 16 October 2023
A new diagnostics centre in East Cheshire designed to cut waits for diagnostic scans and checks – including for cancer – has won funding and is now due to open next year.
The Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) will give NHS patients a ‘one stop shop’ for tests at Congleton War Memorial Hospital after East Cheshire NHS Trust was awarded £5million from NHS England to re-engineer and expand an existing facility.
Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance has been working with hospital trusts and NHS Cheshire and Merseyside to create a network of CDCs across the sub-region and eight are operating after the latest ones opened their doors in central Liverpool and Warrington.
CDCs bring greater capacity to carry out vital NHS tests and scans in locations away from the pressures of a busy acute hospital providing emergency care, but close to where patients live. They offer tests to people referred by their GP or other health professionals to check for a wide range of conditions, including cancer.
Simon Goff, Chief Operating Officer at East Cheshire NHS Trust, said: “We are delighted to have been allocated the funding to enable us to progress these plans. This exciting development will future-proof our services and allow us to provide localised diagnostics care where appropriate, reducing attendances and potentially admissions to an acute hospital setting.”