\n A \u00a317.8 million NHS diagnostic centre has officially opened today, Wednesday August 19, beside Bridgwater Community Hospital, bringing MRI and CT scans closer to home for patients across Somerset.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Bridgwater Diagnostic Centre is expected to provide almost 25,000 additional scans each year and will later become home to Somerset\u2019s first dedicated urology investigation unit.\n<\/p>\n
\n The centre was developed by Somerset NHS Foundation Trust using \u00a317.8m of NHS England funding, as part of a national programme intended to increase diagnostic capacity, support earlier diagnosis and reduce waiting times.\n<\/p>\n
\n Guests including healthcare partners, local stakeholders and members of the project team attended an opening event on Tuesday, August 18, where they toured the new building.\n<\/p>\n
\n The site has MRI and CT capacity and is designed to enable more patients to receive tests outside of acute hospital settings.\n<\/p>\n
\n Somerset NHS Foundation Trust says this will also free capacity at the county\u2019s two acute hospitals, supporting care for inpatients.\n<\/p>\n
\n Health minister Karin Smyth said: “The NHS should fit around people\u2019s lives, not the other way around.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This brand-new, state-of-the-art centre for Bridgwater is going to offer convenient tests, checks and scans, without a trip to hospital.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Martin Wilkinson, director of performance and delivery at NHS England South West, said the centre would improve access to diagnostics in Somerset.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “It is great that this latest community diagnostic centre in Bridgwater is now open, offering a range of diagnostics closer to home for many people in Somerset.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We have worked hard with providers and integrated care boards across the region over the past few years to build CDCs across the south west so that people can get an earlier diagnosis and reduce waiting lists.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The centre was delivered through Somerset NHS Foundation Trust\u2019s managed service partnership with Erg\u00e9a UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n Adam Turner, the trust\u2019s head of imaging, said: “Aligned with one of the NHS\u2019s key shifts, to move care from hospital to community, this facility will help us provide faster access to vital diagnostic tests, support earlier diagnosis, and make it easier for patients to be cared for closer to home.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Later in the year, a dedicated urology investigations unit will open inside the building.\n<\/p>\n
\n It will bring outpatient appointments, tests and procedures into one purpose-designed setting, which the trust says should reduce the need for people to make multiple visits to different hospital sites.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Bridgwater facility follows the opening of Somerset\u2019s first community diagnostic centre in Taunton in 2021 and the Yeovil Diagnostic Centre earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u00a317.8 million NHS diagnostic centre has officially opened today, Wednesday August 19, beside Bridgwater Community Hospital, bringing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-745129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}