Law firm advises NHS England on deal for new South West community diagnostic centres

Five community diagnostic centres will be opened across the South West to provide additional capacity to meet increasing demand.
NHS England was advised by commercial health experts from law firm Bevan Brittan on the procurement of a community diagnostic partner.
This forms part of the government announcement on 4 August 2023 that 13 new community diagnostic centres are opening across the country to deliver more than 742,000 additional scans, tests and checks a year.
InHealth, the UK’s largest specialist provider of diagnostic and healthcare solutions, will provide services at the community diagnostic centres located in Bristol, Weston-Super-Mare, Yeovil, Torbay and Bodmin. The centres, with the exception of Yeovil, will be situated away from hospital sites on retail parks or on the high street for ease of access by the public.
Community diagnostic centres are medical facilities where patients can be referred by their GP or an outpatient consultant to undergo a range of non-emergency diagnostic procedures including x-ray, MRI scan, CT scan, endoscopy procedures and ultrasound.
Mobile facilities are now being provided by InHealth at or near the five locations until the permanent community diagnostic centres are established.
A team of seven legal experts from Bevan Brittan advised NHS England on the deal.
Partner, Sharon Renouf, led the team. She said: “Medical professionals are using diagnostic tests more than ever before. This surge in demand has coincided with a backlog caused partly by the Covid-19 pandemic where non-urgent cases had to be cancelled. These new community diagnostic centres will add significant extra capacity and mean that patients across the South West will have swifter access to follow up tests.”
Bevan Brittan’s team included Charlotte Scourfield (Legal Director), Angela Lovett (Senior Associate), Susannah Jury, Laura Cook, Madeline Nankervis and Annie Richardson.