Thousands of patients to benefit from state-of-the-art Community Diagnostic Centre now open at Florence Nightingale Community Hospital
A brand-new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) which aims to deliver quicker access to diagnostic testing and results for patients in the Derbyshire community is now open.
The innovative £11.6m facility at Florence Nightingale Community Hospital in Derby aims to deliver more than 200,000 tests a year for patients closer to home, to improve the patient experience and bring down waiting lists.
It offers new services and an expansion of existing services to significantly increase the number of patient tests. These include the introduction of Computerised Tomography (CT) scanning, cardiology, respiratory, echocardiography, dermoscopy and Point of Care Testing (POCT) and expansions in areas including blood testing, MRI, ultrasound, x-ray, audiology and dexa, which is an imaging test used to measure bone density.
Stephen Posey, Chief Executive of University Hospitals of Derby and Burton (UHDB), believes the new setup will result in a better care experience for patients.
He said: "It was fantastic to meet with colleagues today to personally thank them for their efforts to improve the services we offer to our Derbyshire communities.
"We hope that this centre will have a real impact for local people, allowing our patients to access services closer to home, while enabling us to do more tests, more quickly - ultimately delivering reduced waiting times and a better care experience for our patients."
The centre is run by experienced clinical teams from UHDB and Stephen was joined by Rob Hodgkiss, incoming Interim Executive Chief Operating Officer and Amanda Rawlings, Executive Chief People Officer, to tour the site on May 7, where they learned more about the impact the centre is already having and thanked the colleagues who have been working hard behind the scenes to make it happen.
Last year, during its development, the CDC delivered more than 148,000 tests but now it is fully up and running it is projected to deliver testing to 209,387 patients in the community during the year of 25/26.
Lisa Dowson, Interim General Manager for Imaging, outlined the impact the CDC is already having, with an average of 3,369 diagnostic tests being delivered every week from the services at the centre.
Lisa said: "Since the centre has been developed, we have been able to offer more appointments for our patients who have been on our waiting lists. As well as the benefits of seeing them quicker, feedback from patients has been really positive, with lots of comments about the calming atmosphere in the centre. Patient experience has been at the heart of this project so it is really exciting to finally have our doors open to support more local people to get the diagnostic care they need."
The Community Diagnostic Centres are part of a £29.9m investment to create ‘one-stop shops’ that improve local population health outcomes by bringing essential diagnostic testing closer to local communities that need them the most. The centres are strategically located to support communities with challenges accessing hospital diagnostic services and will support the local healthcare system with reducing hospital pressures particularly during winter pressure and peak seasons.
There are two additional CDCs opening across UHDB. Ilkeston Community Hospital in Derbyshire has recently opened its doors and Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital in Tamworth is expected to be open later this year, while Community Hospitals in Whitworth and Walton are also forming part of the project.
When all of the sites are online, the five centres are expected to deliver around 462,000 diagnostic tests in 2025/2026, supporting quicker access to care for local communities.