Publish date: 31 July 2023
Patients in Cheshire and Merseyside are benefiting from earlier access to vital tests – including for cancer – with the opening of two new community diagnostic centres (CDCs).
Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance has been working with hospital trusts and NHS Cheshire and Merseyside to create a network of CDCs and now eight are operating across the sub-region after the latest ones opened their doors in Liverpool and Warrington.
The 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.
One CDC has opened in Paddington Village, near to The Clatterbridge Cancer Hospital in central Liverpool, after the NHS acquired the formerly privately-run Rutherford Cancer Centre North West. This CDC is owned and operated by The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust.
The other CDC, Warrington and Halton Diagnostics Centre, is operated by Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WHH). The initial stage of this facility has included redevelopment of part of Halton Hospital, with services now fully operational there, and there will also be an extension to services provided at Halton Health Hub, in Runcorn Shopping City. In addition, this CDC scheme includes the construction of a new, £6m purpose-built diagnostics centre next to the existing Captain Sir Tom Moore building at Halton General Hospital, which is scheduled to open in summer 2024.
Cheshire and Merseyside has been at the vanguard of rolling out CDCs as part of a national NHS England programme supported by government funding. It launched the first CDC nationally in St Helens and there are now ones in Wirral, Ellesmere Port, Northwich, Southport, and two in Liverpool, including the new one in Paddington, as well as Warrington and Halton.
Jon Hayes, Managing Director of Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance, said: “People in many areas of Cheshire and Merseyside are more likely to experience ill health than the national average, including cancer, so it’s particularly important that they can get the tests they need quickly when symptoms develop. We are delighted that these two new CDCs are open and helping people, and join our network of six other hubs in our sub-region.”
Dr Liz Bishop, Senior Responsible Officer for Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance and Diagnostics in the sub-region, said: “Faster and earlier access to tests thanks to community diagnostic centres like this will mean people with potentially serious conditions – and those living with pain or other symptoms – can get diagnosed and start treatment more quickly, giving them a better quality of life and a better chance of a successful outcome.”