£15m new 'one-stop' NHS Community Diagnostic Centre in Skegness will 'cut patient waiting lists'

The new community diagnostic centres (CDCs) will build on the services offered by Skegness Hospital.

It is part of a total £38m investment for Lincolnshire announced today by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) that will also see a CDC in Lincoln

Patients will benefit from greatly improved access to NHS diagnostic tests, such as X-ray and ultrasound.

CDCs are designed to be ‘one stop shops’ that are able to check, test and scan patients for a range of conditions from cancer to heart or lung disease.

The NHS in Lincolnshire successfully opened its first CDC in Grantham in April 2022, which since then has undertaken over 59,000 diagnostic tests. The new investment announced today will significantly increase diagnostic capacity in the county to the benefit of patients across Lincolnshire.

“We are absolutely thrilled to have this substantial additional funding confirmed, which will enable us to establish these two new CDCs and significantly increase our local diagnostic capacity, making a huge difference to patients,” comments John Turner, Chief Executive, NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board.

“I’m particularly pleased that we have secured around £15m for the CDC investment in Skegness, which we believe amounts to the biggest single NHS investment in the town centre for many years. Having these diagnostic services available locally will be of great benefit to local people and will provide a huge boost to meeting the needs of patients on our east coast.”

Both of the new CDCs will be modular buildings, which means that they can be built relatively quickly and cost efficiently. With the funding now confirmed the expectation is that, whilst the CDCs are under construction, a mobile MRI service will commence on both sites from December. Further services will then be added with the CDCs being fully operational by September 2024.

Claire Lloyd, CDC Programme Lead, said: “For Lincolnshire, and particularly for Skegness and Lincoln, this investment into the two new CDCs is at a level that will make an enormous difference to our diagnostic testing capabilities and capacity in the county for years to come and we are immensely proud of that.”