New community diagnostic centre promised for Scarborough town centre by end of the year

Scarborough Gateway community diagnostic centre (CDC) is set to open at Valley Bridge Road by December this year, according to the Minister of State for Health, Will Quince.

The CDCs aim to increase diagnostic capacity and reduce waiting times, with the site planned for Scarborough set to include “state-of-the-art equipment to deliver CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasound, X-ray, respiratory, cardiology and pathology” services.

In a letter to the MP for Scarborough and Whitby, Sir Robert Goodwill, the health minister said that “activity will be delivered from December 2023” and that once fully operational it will have the capacity to “deliver up to 91,086 checks, tests, and scans a year”.

Additionally, a “Scarborough CDC will open at Ripon Community Hospital in the same month” and will have the capacity for 27,000 checks a year once up and running, according to the Government.

Sir Robert Goodwill MP said: “I am very pleased that this has been announced and know that this will help deliver better treatment for our local constituents.”

On Friday, June 9, the Government said it was “showing progress on its promise to open 160 of the facilities by March 2025”, with eight CDCs due to open by the end of the year.

GPs will be able to refer patients to a centre so they can be diagnosed for a range of conditions, “rather than travelling to hospital” and aim to “free up clinicians’ time to help further cut the waiting lists”.

A report presented at the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s board meeting in May stated that the CDC programme has also approved equipment for Askham Bar and Selby sites which will increase capacity for physiological measurement, DEXA, ultrasound, and phlebotomy – a procedure in which a needle is used to take blood from a vein.

Writing to the MP for Scarborough and Whitby, the health minister, Mr Quince said: “We must continue to work together to build a health and social care system for the long term.”