Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care Trust have received formal approval to build and run a Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) within the South East Manchester Sector, which covers the two areas. Located within Crown Point Retail Park in Denton, Tameside, it will offer MR scans, CT scans, DEXA scans, ECG, phlebotomy, and spirometry. Providing around 129,000 extra tests annually when all services are live, it will be accepting patients from across Tameside and Stockport, referred by a hospital or acute professional.
The two organisations say it will ‘focus on early testing close to home for the main drivers of health inequalities’ – respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mental health issues, helping to ensure that patients have access to these tests sooner.
A network of Community Diagnostic Centres is currently being planned and opened countrywide as part of the recommendations from Professor Sir Mike Richards, the first NHS National Cancer director, who conducted a review of diagnostic services as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, published in 2019. The aim is to provide easier, faster, and more direct access to the full range of diagnostics needed to understand symptoms, reduce the need for hospital visits, and contribute to the NHS ambition to cut carbon emissions and air pollution by providing multiple tests on one visit, reducing patient journey numbers.
The new CDC in Denton is expected to be in use by early 2024. By the end of 2025, there will be 26 CDCs across the North West, seven of them in Greater Manchester.
Karen James OBE, CEO for both Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust and Stockport NHS Foundation Trust (pictured), said: “Approval being given for our new Community Diagnostic Centre is excellent news, providing a new option within the community for people in Tameside and Stockport to receive the diagnostic tests they need. It will help us to provide tests more swiftly and efficiently, allowing them to get their diagnosis and treatment sooner.”