As we near closer to the opening of the new St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub, I was delighted to learn that the government will also be opening a new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Hornchurch this December.
As one of thirteen centres announced this month, it is part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s drive to cut NHS waiting lists and get people better, faster care. This CDC will add to the now 114 open across the country, located in the new St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub, and will have capacity to deliver over 38,000 tests and scans a year, including CT and MRI, for local residents.
This CDC, alongside a wide range of other services coming to the new St. George’s Health & Wellbeing Hub next Spring, will help to get people better care, ease pressure on Queen’s Hospital and deliver better health outcomes. I look forward to the first tests and scans taking place this winter.
Cutting NHS waiting lists, which grew during the pandemic, is one of the Prime Minister’s five key pledges. By May the Government had delivered a 94% reduction in the number of people waiting more than 78 weeks for treatment from the September 2021 peak. Havering’s local NHS trust, BHRUT, has gone even further and in April announced that they had completely cleared waiting lists of those waiting more than 18 months for treatment.