Diagnostic centre to speed up treatment
THE diagnosis and treatment of a range of conditions including cancer and heart disease, is set to get quicker, thanks to the opening of a new centre.
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust and are opening a new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Denton, Tameside in partnership with InHealth, the UK’s largest specialist provider of diagnostic solutions.
The new centre will be open to patients later in 2024.
With funding provided by NHS England, thousands of people will be able to visit it every year to get a wide range of diagnostic tests in one central place, away from a busy hospital site.
The services will be for the use of the populations across Stockport, Tameside, Glossop and the High Peak. The South East Manchester CDC will be the second of its kind in Greater Manchester to be located in a retail location, situated at Crown Point in Denton.
It will offer high-tech scanning, heart tests and other diagnostic services, helping to detect a range of conditions quicker, ensuring patients can then be treated faster.
Patients will be able to access the services via a clinician referral.
Karen James OBE, chief executive for both Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust said: “It’s great to see building work starting on our new Community Diagnostic Centre which will ensure more checks, tests and scans are available sooner for people in both Tameside and Stockport.
“This will be a fantastic new resource for local people, helping them to get the diagnosis and care they need as soon as possible.”
Geoff Searle, InHealth chief executive, said: “We’re incredibly pleased to be working in partnership with our NHS partners in the North West to create this new centre, which signifies another step forward in providing additional capacity, improving health outcomes and increasing the range, scale and accessibility of services for the local population of Greater Manchester.
“InHealth has been working in partnership with the NHS for more than 30 years, with more than 15 existing Community Diagnostic Centres in England, so we’re delighted to be expanding this model across the country”.
The new centre is also part of a national programme to help continue the recovery of services left overwhelmed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government has committed a £2.3billion national investment to open up to 160 CDCs by 2025 providing approximately 9 million additional tests a year for people nationwide.
By the end of 2025, there will be 26 CDCs across the North West, six of them in Greater Manchester.