Millions of patients will benefit from earlier diagnostic tests thanks to the opening of 40 new community diagnostic centres across England in a range of settings from local shopping centres to football stadiums.
The new one-stop-shops for checks, scans and tests will be backed by a £350 million investment from government to provide around 2.8 million scans in the first full year of operation.
GPs will be able to refer patients to a centre so they can access life-saving checks closer to home and be diagnosed for a range of conditions, rather than travelling to hospital. This will be more convenient for patients, more efficient and more resilient to the risk of cancelled tests in hospitals due to COVID-19.
The centres will be staffed by a multi-disciplinary team of staff including nurses and radiographers and are open 7 days a week. They will begin providing services over the next 6 months, with some already up and running, and will be fully operational by March 2022.
In the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire area, a centre will be located at Sulis Hospital in Bath. A full list of locations and further information can be found at gov.uk.
