By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter
A new multi-million-pound health centre aimed at streamlining diagnostics for serious illnesses has been given planning approval in Mansfield.
The new community diagnostics centre (CDC) will be built on land at Mansfield’s Community Hospital, in Stockwell Gate.
The major hub comes as part of wider NHS plans to hasten diagnostics and improve outcomes for millions of people nationwide.
It’s one of two similar sites planned across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, with a second in the pipeline for the City Hospital.
NHS papers say the site will be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for numerous tests, allowing people to get quick diagnoses for illnesses such as cancer.
This will include CT scans, MRI scans, endoscopies, ultrasounds and X-rays, with patients able to get quick answers to their health concerns.
NHS bosses say the centre will help to reduce waiting times for thousands of patients and could conduct as many as 97,000 tests and scans a year.
The plans were first unveiled by Nottinghamshire NHS leaders and Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust (SFH) in February.
SFH is the hospital trust in charge of Mansfield Community Hospital as well as King’s Mill and Newark hospitals and will control the CDC.
Now Mansfield District Council’s planning committee has given unanimous backing to the plans.
In a meeting on April 24, councillors were told the facility will be life-changing to thousands of people across Mansfield, Ashfield, Newark and Sherwood.
A spokesperson for the authority’s planning department told the committee: “It will effectively streamline cancer care while potentially providing a one-stop-shop.
“You can come in, be diagnosed in one place with one appointment, rather than having several different appointments spread throughout a period of time.
“It’s part of a wider project across the whole of Nottinghamshire. This facility would serve Mansfield and surrounding districts.
“The second will be provided in Nottingham city.”
The facility will be built on existing land at the community hospital site, with an existing Victorian building to be demolished to make way for the CDC.
No new car parking will be provided on-site, with the existing provision at the community hospital deemed sufficient for the number of CDC patients.
NHS bosses expect the facility to welcome its first patient by autumn 2024.
The authority’s planning committee unanimously backed the plans and only one minor comment was made during the debate.
This related to questions over accessible access to the site, which received assurances from planning officers.
However, David Ainsworth, SFH’s director for strategy and partnerships, previously explained more about the project to a county council committee.
Speaking in the March health scrutiny committee, he said: “We’re waiting for approval of some additional funds to go live in December this year.
“If that comes good, we’ve got a plan in place to start some of the work already and we’d look to move an MRI scanner onto the Community Hospital site.
“We’d probably do some ultrasounds and blood tests and we think that could give us an additional 500 tests from that site from December this year.
“This starts to lead into the planning that, by 2024/25, we’d have an additional 97,000 tests just from this new site.”
Cllr David Martin (Ash Ind), who represents Selston, added: “It’s a great news story for Mansfield, Ashfield, Newark and Sherwood.
“It’s a great idea, site and location and the local spend is positive.
“It’s going to increase diagnoses and that’s great news for our part of the county.”
