New Community Diagnostic Centre giving patients an option closer to home

A new Community Diagnostic Centre in Swindon is giving local people an option for diagnostic checks, scans and tests closer to home.

Following a GP referral, patients can now receive a diagnosis for a range of conditions such as cancer, heart and lung disease, that was previously only available in hospital.

Swindon’s Community Diagnostic Centre, based in West Swindon next to the Link Centre, is one of three new centres across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire, thanks to a £14 million investment by the local NHS.

The development is one of 170 sites planned across England in a variety of settings including shopping centres, university campuses and football stadiums.

In Swindon patients can currently receive CT and MRI scanning, and cardiac, respiratory and ultrasounds will be available from the centre soon, with an Endoscopy Unit due to open in summer 2025.

This investment in community-based services is part of the NHS Community Diagnostic Centre Programme which is bringing a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home for thousands of patients, reducing the need for hospital visits and potentially expediting treatment.

Community Diagnostic Centres aim to tackle the backlog for tests and checks patients are waiting for, while reducing hospital visits and offering a more convenient location for patients.

By April 2025, it is expected that around 60,000 local people, all of whom would have previously needed to attend hospital, will have visited one of the centres for a diagnostic test.

Claire Thompson, Chief Improvement and Partnerships Officer at the Trust, said: “Over the coming months, we’ll be introducing a whole range of new services at each of the centres, including cardiac and ultrasound suites at Salisbury Central Health Clinic and state-of-the-art endoscopy units at both the Sulis Hospital in Bath and West Swindon Health Centre.”

Dr Amanda Webb, Chief Medical Officer, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board, said: “We can now see more patients sooner in a location that is not only closer to home, but which offers the same cutting-edge equipment found in hospitals.”

Further information

For more information about local health and care services, including the new local community diagnostic centres in Bath, Swindon and Salisbury, visit Community Diagnostic Centres - Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB