By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
A new state-of-the-art NHS testing centre is being planned for the middle of the regenerated Broadmarsh development in Nottingham.
The Community Diagnostic Centre will be a “one-stop shop” providing direct access to services such as MRI scans, CT, x-ray, ultrasound and heart and lung testing.
The centre will be run and staffed by Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, and will provide an extra 100,000 tests a year from next spring.
The NHS say it will speed up diagnosis for conditions such as cancer.
It comes after the Department for Health and Social Care announced funding 13 new Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs), including one in Mansfield, to be run by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The NHS says the Nottingham centre will help reduce backlogs, diagnose earlier and free up space in hospitals.
Mark Simmonds, deputy medical director for Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it would bring “part of the NHS to your high street”.
The trust will lease the new building from Nottingham City Council, once it has been built at a cost of £25 million.
Mr Simmonds added: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the people of Nottingham and the NHS as whole to be part of the regeneration of this area. it is a really exciting time.
“Many people have called Broadmarsh an eyesore in the past.
“We will reuse of some existing buildings in Lister Gate that look out onto the Broadmarsh site. It will be unrecognisable.
“Delays to diagnostics are too long and this marks an opportunity to deliver greater capacity in an accessible place.
“People from the whole of Nottingham can benefit without coming to constrained hospital sites.
“This will be a part of the NHS on your high street. We are looking forward to getting boots on the ground.
“There has been extraordinary collaboration and thank you to those involved.”
“We’ve done our due diligence with this programme. We are confident it can be delivered and will be a part of the regeneration process.”
When asked about staffing challenges in the national NHS, he added: “We totally recognise the challenge and we have plans afoot.
“This is a new opportunity for people working in healthcare to be part of something new which in itself will be attractive.
“However we recognise staffing groups are in short supply so we will start employing well in advance of opening.”
The centre will provide in excess of 140,000 appointments annually, which will be available to patients through hospital consultants initially, and eventually also via GPs.
Once it is at full capacity it will employ 135 staff including consultant radiologists, radiographers, imaging assistants, physiologists and administrators.
Nationally CDCs aim to improve overall health, reduce cancer waiting times and health inequalities, and help to solve a backlog in procedures exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Planning applications and formal contracts will now be drawn up following the announcement of the agreement.
