On Monday, 17 February 2025, Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, visited our North Bristol Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC), to mark the announcement of an extra two million appointments having been delivered in Labour’s first seven months in office.
As part of the elective recovery element of the wider NHS 10-year plan, Community Diagnostic Centres like this one, along with surgical hubs, such as the Bristol Surgical Centre currently being built at Southmead Hospital, are proving vital in reducing waiting lists and enabling more patients to be treated outside of an acute hospital setting.
Since the opening of the North Bristol CDC in April 2024, over 30,000 people have attended for diagnostic tests, which in turn means people can start treatment sooner. Approximately, 50,000 NHS patients will be seen over the next 12 months, a number that is expected to grow each year. Opening this centre has helped North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) reduce the number of patients waiting longer than six weeks for diagnostic tests to below the national standard of 5% or lower.
Since the opening of the North Bristol CDC in April 2024, over 30,000 people have attended for diagnostic tests, which in turn means people can start treatment sooner. Approximately, 50,000 NHS patients will be seen over the next 12 months, a number that is expected to grow each year. Opening this centre has helped North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) reduce the number of patients waiting longer than six weeks for diagnostic tests to below the national standard of 5% or lower.
The Prime Minister met with Maria Kane, Joint CEO of North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) and University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW), Ingrid Barker, Joint Chair of North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) and University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW), Amelia Staniland, Managing Director of Diagnostics for InHealth, Nick Hall, Commercial Director for InHealth and Jesil-Ann Dayucos, Service Manager for Bristol & Weston Community Diagnostic Centres.
Sir Keir Starmer was taken on a tour of the centre, where he met with Radiographers, Endoscopists, Nurses and reception staff to talk about their work at the centre.
The North Bristol CDC fully opened in November last year (with most services initially operating from mobile units in the car park since April 2024), next to the Asda store on Cribbs Causeway in Bristol. GPs at some local practices or via NBT and UHBW can refer people directly for a range of diagnostic tests, including CT, MRI, endoscopy, and respiratory tests. The CDC is open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It is delivered through a partnership with independent healthcare provider, InHealth, and is their largest site and among the biggest in the country, and the first fully digitally integrated InHealth CDC.
There is also a Community Diagnostic Centre in Weston, run in partnership with UHBW as well as centres at Torbay, Yeovil and Redruth, as part of a broader partnership with InHealth to deliver 5 CDCs in the South West.
Nationally, InHealth has designed, built, and operated over 20 CDCs. InHealth has also been supporting an endoscopy training programme across Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire, a project that won an HSJ Partnership Award. This project highlights the benefits of working with the independent sector to create more capacity.
(Photographs by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street)