Publish date: 5 October 2023
A new scanning service has been launched at Cheshire and Merseyside’s newest diagnostics hub, which is speeding up diagnosis for patients, including those with suspected cancer.
Paddington Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in central Liverpool has now expanded its services to include CT scans after the arrival of the high-spec Siemens Somatom X-cite CT scanner.
Patients on the waiting lists for CT scans at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT) will be the first to be scanned. Over time, other patients are also likely to be referred there for scans.
CT Clinical Specialist Radiographer Sammy McNeill has been heavily involved in developing the new CT service and commissioning the scanner. She said: “We’re really excited about the new scanner which has state-of-the-art imaging and provides detailed scans for patients on waiting lists; giving them a quicker diagnosis.
“It also has a host of features to help patients relax including mood lighting, ambient images and music so they have the best possible experience while being scanned. We have had amazing feedback from our first patients, and it has been described as a spa-like experience, which has been lovely to hear.”
Paddington Community Diagnostic Centre opened at the end of July 2023 and offers MRI scans for patients on the LUHFT waiting list, ultrasound scans for patients on the LUHFT and Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (MWL) waiting list and phlebotomy (blood tests) for Clatterbridge patients.
It is owned and operated by The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (CCC) on behalf of the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside and is part of NHS England's national programme of CDCs.
Meanwhile, Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has lodged a planning application with Halton Borough Council for a two-storey extension on the Captain Sir Tom Moore Building in Runcorn, in the latest phase of its CDC expansion. It would include an MRI and CT scanners, changing and toilet facilities.