|
|
2 new Community Diagnostic Centres approved for the North West of England
THE Department of Health and Social Care has announced that the Government has approved 2 new Community Diagnostic Centres for the North West of England. This means thousands of patients in the North West of England are set to benefit from quicker access to tests, checks and scans.
Top
The UK Government says that these one-stop-shops will be at the heart of the community, with patients set to receive:- "quicker access to treatment and lifesaving diagnostic tests and 19 of the facilities in total opening across the country." we are told that these new centres will be based in both:- Halton and Liverpool. CDCs, backed by £2.3 billion in Government funding, is based in convenient locations such as:- shopping centres and football stadiums, which have already delivered an additional 3 million tests, checks and scans. The new centres will provide a number of diagnostic functions, including:-
Once fully operational, the new centres will deliver an extra 96,226 tests, checks and scans a year. Diagnostic services, including cancer screening, were impacted by the Pandemic. CDCs are central to the government’s elective recovery plan and the Prime Minister’s priority of reducing NHS waiting lists to tackle the backlogs in the NHS and social care, ensuring patients get the diagnosis and treatment they need as quickly as possible. The total number of operational CDCs across England stands at 92, of which 14 are based in the North West. Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:- "Rapid diagnosis offers reassurance to patients, reduces waiting lists, and crucially saves lives. CDCs have been fundamental to this effort, delivering over 3 million extra tests which are helping to diagnose conditions from cancer to lung disease more quickly across the country. The new centres will take us even further, utilising cutting-edge MRI, CT and X-ray machines to transform the way we deliver care closer to people’s homes helping tens of thousands of people." NHS National Director of Elective Recovery, Sir James Mackey, said:- "The NHS’s ambitious elective recovery plan, published just over a year ago, had these innovative ‘one-stop shops’ at its heart. Since then they have played a key role in helping us virtually eliminate the number of people waiting more than 2 years for treatment and keeping the NHS on track to do the same for people waiting over 18 months by the end of April, with the centres; often based in convenient places such as in:-shopping centres, high streets and Community Hospitals; now having delivered an incredible 3 million tests and checks. These 19 new centres will boost access for tens of thousands more patients and build on the great work of NHS staff in recovering services, helping the NHS deliver an extra 9 million tests a year by 2025; an increase in capacity of more than a quarter on pre-pandemic levels.” Dozens of new surgical spaces are also being created to bring down waiting times. An estimated 780,000 additional surgeries and outpatient appointments will be provided at 37 new surgical hubs, 10 expanded existing hubs and 81 new theatres across England. Just over a year ago, the Government in England and the NHS set out the:- 'Elective Recovery Plan' to recover NHS services and give patients greater control over their own health. Significant progress has since been made; with healthcare workers virtually eliminating the longest waits for treatment and cutting 18 month waits by more than 50%. The Government has also set up an Elective Recovery Taskforce to unlock spare capacity in the independent sector to tackle the backlogs. It is made up of academics and experts from the NHS and independent sector, who will help deliver on the remaining targets in the Elective Recovery Plan; such as virtually eliminating 18 Nonth waits by April 2023 and waits of longer than a year by March 2025. The full list of approved CDCs is as follows:-
|
||||||||||||||||||
|