01 / Introduction

Building community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is a priority for NHS England. Right now, 13 new CDCs are being launched across the country – part of a £2.3bn plan to establish up to 160 centres by 2025. The primary goal is to reduce waiting times for NHS patients who need non‑urgent care.

People are experiencing long waits to receive planned or elective healthcare. Emergency medicine takes precedence, and in 2020 the NHS paused all elective treatment to tackle covid. Four years on, elective diagnostics, operations and treatment plans remain to be worked through.

The NHS England elective waiting list stands at around 6.4 million people. At the end of last year, 337,450 people in England had been waiting more than a year to receive care.

Historically, diagnostic care – used, for example, to identify and monitor cancers and long‑term health issues – would be the preserve of acute hospitals in larger towns or cities. Now diagnostics are increasingly moving into separate buildings, off acute sites and even into temporary locations. This is to meet the needs of ageing, less mobile populations and to also achieve a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan, which includes a goal to deliver more care outside major acute hospitals.

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