It has opened todayLook inside brand new £25 million health centre
More accessible testing and faster diagnosis, Plymouth’s £25 million community diagnostics centre will open to patients next Tuesday (June 23) with the aim of improving health outcomes for people in the most deprived area of the city.
With plans to provide 135,000 tests a year and up to 340 appointments a day, the CDC at Colin Campbell Court in the West End is part of the NHS vision to bring healthcare closer to home and away from acute hospital settings.
Operating seven days a week from 8am to 8pm, the new centre will offer, via referral, CT, MRI, X-ray and ultrasound scans; cardiology, lung function, vascular and neurophysiology appointments, booked appointments for blood tests and adult audiology services, the latter of which which have moved in their entirety from Derriford.
A partnership between the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and Plymouth City Council, who sold the land – valued at £270,000 – for one pound to the trust, the site was chosen deliberately to help regenerate the West End and increase footfall to the shops and cafes.
Plymouth City Council’s cabinet member for health and adult social care Maria Lawson (Lab, Plymstock Dunstone) said at the opening for staff this week that the centre been a long held vision for the council and she saw it as “the start” of a wider plan of health facilities for the area and key to the authority’s plan for 10,000 new homes.
Celebrations-at-the-community-diagnostics-with-staff-NHS-officials-and-councillors(Image: Alison Stephenson)
A second CDC is planned for the area along with a dental hub.
Health officials described the campaign for the diagnostics centre a “crusade”.
It started in 2019 but hit problems in 2023 when an offer by Plymouth City Council to lend the NHS £45 million to build a health facility was turned down as health chiefs said they could not afford the £2.6 million annual repayments.
MP Luke Pollard, who unveiled a plaque to mark the facility open, said there was great disappointment at not getting the Colin Campbell Court Cavell Centre over the line but that was followed by hope of a CDC.
“This journey has involved so many and so much effort, time and thought,” he said. “I have been arguing for health on the high street for some time but this is not just a building. While it is well built and impressive when you pass it at Western Approach, it is about people, people with a vision to argue for decent health facilities for our poorer communities – and our poorest communities live 50 metres from this building.
“Derriford is quite a trek from here and for many people it is too much money to get there.” That means they are not accessing the healthcare they need.”
Luke-Pollard-unveils-plaque-at-the-community-diagnostics-centre(Image: Alison Stephenson)
But he said the benefits from having the CDC in the city centre were not just about health but about growth as well as local shops and cafes would get a boost from the increased footfall.
Imaging directorate manager at the CDC Joan Audas said although some of the services would be relocating from Derriford the capacity had also increased for example the cardiac CT capacity had doubled.
She said 90 extra staff had been recruited in the imaging team so it would mean people getting tests quicker.
Adam Beckman head of audiology said audiology was often the “Cinderella” health service and placed in the basement of acute settings but in the new centre it had been given a strong presence.
He reiterated that state of the art facilities resulted in happy staff which in turn meant happy patients.