NHS diagnostics centre set to open next month

A new community diagnostics centre in Scarborough is set to open in February, according to the government.

Scarborough Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC), in Eastfield, will provide tests and scans such as ultrasound, X-ray, MRI and CT, as well as offer recovery spaces.

It is expected to become fully functional by March and from April, it will offer at least one diagnostic service for 12 hours a day, seven days a week, according to health minister Karin Smyth.

However, a retrospective planning application for the CDC, on Hopper Hill Road, submitted last summer, is still pending approval with North Yorkshire Council.

​In its application, the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the sustainable two-storey hospital building would "allow patients to access planned diagnostic care nearer to home without the need to attend acute hospital sites".

Health minister ​Karin Smyth MP said the CDC was one of a number to be opened by the government for seven days a week so "patients can access vital diagnostic tests around their busy working lives".

"103 CDCs are now open across these extended hours, an increase of 40 since July 2024," she said.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Scarborough's CDC was originally proposed to open in December 2023, offering 91,000 additional checks a year.

Smyth said the Scarborough CDC had been delivering diagnostic activity since October 2023, but from a temporary location at Bridlington Hospital.

"To date, the CDC has delivered 57,962 diagnostic tests, including magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, phlebotomy, and echocardiography," she said.

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