Halton Hospital to host diagnostics centre
The Runcorn facility is among a tranche of ten sites to receive funding for a Community Diagnostic Centre as government looks to reduce Covid-19-related backlogs.
The £2.3bn national CDC programme aims to deploy 160 centres around the country. Of these, 92 are already operational and have delivered more than 2m tests and checks since July 2021.
Billed by the government as a one-stop shop, the idea behind the CDCs is to offer a range of diagnostic checks, scans and tests closer to home – some of those opened so far are in shopping centres or football stadia as well as at existing health facilities.
Following a GP referral, patients can get their symptoms checked and receive a potentially life-saving diagnosis
The Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust applied for the funding in two tranches. The first phase, valued at £10.5m, will enable a smaller ‘Fast-Track CDC’ within the existing Nightingale building (the former General Hospital) to provide additional diagnostic capacity across several services. This includes:
- Upgrading the existing MRI scanner in the Captain Sir Tom Moore Building to extend its useful life and improve productivity
- Additional rooms to accommodate lung tests and sleep studies
- Significant additional diagnostic equipment to support future expansion in line with demand growth including CT, MRI, X-ray, phlebotomy equipment and point-of-care testing
- Additional capacity for ultrasound and phlebotomy (blood tests)
- A new multi-storey car park to accommodate larger patient numbers and future-proof access to the site for further growth.
The fast-track CDC will increase throughput and capacity for tests and checks, provide additional staff and enable the refurbishment and modernisation of the currently unsuitable estate.
As well as meeting current and future demand for the Trust, the CDC will also support the wider Cheshire and Merseyside footprint through a ‘mutual aid’ scheme – with the aim of achieving a maximum six-week diagnostic wait across the entire region.
Lucy Gardner, director of strategy and partnerships at the Trust, said: “Creating a CDC at Halton is a major strategic investment which will not just benefit the patients of Halton and Warrington, but the wider Cheshire and Merseyside region as we work together to tackle extended waiting times and backlogs that accumulated because of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as addressing health inequalities and deprivation linked to this region.
“It also enables us to test the foundation for a potential larger-scale development of a new-build CDC at Halton which would see the Captain Sir Tom Moore Building extended – a critical enabler of the Trust’s new hospitals programme.”
The fast-track CDC is set to open in spring 2023 with the completion of the multi-storey car park in the summer of 2024.
