New £25m NHS diagnostics centre opens

A new £25m NHS centre providing MRI, CT, ultrasound as well as respiratory and cardiology testing has opened in Slough.

The Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC), based at Upton Hospital, is open seven days a week for 12 hours a day.

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust is hoping it will offer up to 150,000 extra diagnostic tests each year which it said would "reduce health inequalities" as well as help people avoid unnecessary hospital visits.

The facility is expected to relieve pressure on nearby Wexham Park Hospital and GP practices.

Planning permission was granted for the CDC in March 2024 with construction beginning later that year.

The NHS trust said it should reduce waiting times for life-saving tests as well as support earlier diagnosis for conditions like cancer and heart disease.

The creation of CDCs followed Professor Sir Mike Richards' Review of NHS diagnostics capacity in October 2020.

The review, published during the pandemic, recommended them as a way for patients to access planned diagnostic care closer to home without the need to visit a hospital.

Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust said the central location of the Slough CDC will mean "an opportunity for communities who have poorer health outcomes to easily access high quality diagnostic tests".

Speaking after opening the centre, Slough MP Tan Dhesi said: "I am absolutely overjoyed as we were cutting the ribbon... An absolutely incredible feeling.

"This is the NHS Frimley trust, the NHS, being at one with the local community.

"Making sure that they're also alert to the different languages that are spoken, so you see the signage in different languages to make it as easy as possible for those who may not have as good a grasp on English."

James Clarke, chief strategy officer at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: "This is a one-stop-shop for all of your diagnostic tests that you might need to have done.

"Part of it is about making sure we can get tests for people quicker and earlier because then we can start their treatment earlier and that allows us to get a better outcome for them.

"If you imagine 150,000 people a year coming to a building like this, that's 150,000 less that need to go to an acute hospital. What that allows us to do is free up those hospitals to see the sickest people."