Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are already freeing up hospital capacity in the North West by offering MRI, CT and other services closer to patients’ homes, often in the heart of local communities.

Tests and checks carried out at these sites will help staff diagnose a range of conditions including cancer, heart and lung disease quicker to ensure patients get the care they need more quickly, with almost 165,000 tests having already been delivered across the region.   

The NHS is committed to rolling out a network of up to 160 centres across the country, boosting testing capacity so around nine million additional tests and checks can be performed each year by 2025.

New figures come on the same day of the next phase of the NHS campaign to combat the fear of cancer, with TV adverts and social media posts used to tackle people’s cancer worries rather than highlight specific symptoms.

The campaign, which previously ran in March, reached millions of people across the country and resulted in more people visiting the NHS website for support – a 17-fold increase on the previous month.

Deborah Mitchell, North West Diagnostics Lead for NHS England North West, said: “After a huge amount of hard work, commitment and effort, we’re glad to see that so many patients have benefitted from using community diagnostic centres (CDCs) across the North West and the country. 
“In the face of COVID-19, we took on and exceeded in the challenge to help the NHS’s recovery and to take services into the future and we’re pleased to have contributed well over 10% of the national 1,000,000 diagnostic tests.