Plymouth picked for new health centre for diagnostic testing

Plymouth has been announced as a site for one of eight new community diagnostic centres due to open.

The facility will be located in Plymouth’s West End, helping regenerate the city centre and provide wider access to critical diagnostic tests.

Plymouth City Council has been working with University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and the new facility will provide outpatient diagnostic tests including MRI, CT, x-ray, lung cancer screening, ultrasound, audiology, ECG, point of care testing, and blood tests.  More services could be added to this list in the future.

It is hoped the new centre will offer 91,600 imaging tests, alongside a similar number of other tests, when services are live and fully running.

The centre is expected to start offering some tests from as early as September 2023.

While the proposed facility will not be as large as the original planned community health hub, the initial preparation and groundwork carried out for the now stalled Cavell Centre or health hub means that the scheme can get off the ground.

Cllr Mark Lowry said: “On the first day of our administration we submitted our application for this project and from that moment we have worked non-stop to get this project back on track. Clearly this is great news for the city centre and for the health of our residents.

“We have been working on health-led regeneration scheme on this site since 2018 and while there have been set backs, this deal has been made possible because of all the work that has gone on in the background, the initial demand studies, building partnerships, clearing the site and putting the land in as our contribution.

“Not only will this ease the pressure off services at Derriford, it will increase the number of people in and around the West End, supercharge the regeneration of this part of the city centre and vitally, will mean it is easier for people living nearby to access services more easily.”