The minimum offer
Community Diagnostic Centres are a national initiative that will offer checks, scans and tests at one site separate from urgent and emergency facilities. The aim is to tackle the backlog of such tests, simplify and speed the process and have one centre accessible to the public 45 minutes or less travel time from their home. Overall it is hoped that this will improve health outcomes in the targeted population:
The Community Diagnostic Centres programme aims to achieve a range of benefits as outlined above:Improve population health outcomes
Increase diagnostic capacityImprove productivity and efficiency
Contribute to reducing health inequalitiesDeliver better and more personalised experience
Support integration of care
The focus is on serving the most disadvantaged areas. There will be a centre at Ealing, Willesden Centre for Health and Care amd Wembley Centre for Health and Care.
The Committee Report states:
The Community Diagnostic Centres at Willesden Centre for Health and Care and Wembley Centre for Health and Care will work together to serve the deprived and disadvantaged communities of Neasden, Stonebridge, Harlesden, North Hammersmith and Fulham, North Kensington, Queen’s Park and Church Street.
Completing a journey to a Centre within 45 minutes by public transport may be a challenge from some of those areas.
The Process:
Timeline
The
timeline for the three new Community Diagnostic Centres to be established and
operational
is based on the programme of works necessary at each of the three existing
NHS
sites, with anticipated opening dates as follows:
· Willesden – June/July
2023
· Wembley – November/December
2023 (subject to planning approval)
· Ealing – December
2023/January 2024
Details of the offer at the Centres
An officer clarified the roles of the various sites to Wembley Maters:
The plan is for the new Wembley Community Diagnostic Centre to provide imaging services and includes the provision of two MRI and two CT scanners.
We are developing three new Community Diagnostic Centres on existing NHS sites in north west London:
· a larger facility – located at Ealing Hospital
· and two facilities – one at The Wembley Centre for Heath and Care and another at The Willesden Centre for Health and Care – working together to provide the same suite of diagnostic tests as the Ealing Community Diagnostic Centre
The Community Diagnostic Centres at Willesden Centre for Health and Care and Wembley Centre for Health and Care will work together to serve the deprived and disadvantaged communities of Neasden, Stonebridge, Harlesden, North Hammersmith and Fulham, North Kensington, Queen’s Park and Church Street. The two sites also complement each other – the Wembley site provides the greatest catchment area to the overall population of north west London both by car and public transport – and the Willesden site serves the highest proportion (22 per cent) of deprived residents within its catchment area.
Also to note that there is a requirement for planning permission to build a new unit on the Wembley Centre site taking space on what is currently part of the car parking area to the rear of Barham House.
