More patients will get quicker access to life-saving tests as 19 additional community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are set to open this year.
The new centres will perform 1.1 million tests, checks and scans every year which tens of thousands of patients will benefit from.
‘These 19 new centres will boost access for tens of thousands more patients and build on the great work of NHS staff in recovering services, helping the NHS deliver an extra 9 million tests a year by 2025 - an increase in capacity of more than a quarter on pre-pandemic levels,’ said Sir James Mackey, NHS national director of elective recovery.
These new facilities will take the total number of approved CDCs to 143, which is over 80% of the government’s ambition to roll out up to 160 centres across the country by 2025.
CDCs are part of the government’s elective recovery plan to reduce NHS waiting lists to tackle backlogs in the NHS and social care.
The DHSC have said that their new data shows 92 existing operational CDCs have delivered an additional 3 million checks since the programme began in July 2021.
Health and social care secretary, Steve Barclay said: ‘The new centres will take us even further, utilising cutting-edge MRI, CT and X-ray machines to transform the way we deliver care closer to people’s homes helping tens of thousands of people.’
The centres are backed by £2.3 billion in government funding and are located in convenient places like shopping centres and football stadiums.
Since the first of these CDCs opened in November 2022, they have delivered approximately 5% of all diagnostic activity.