A major new health service that will see an estimated 90,000 patients a year is due to open in Coventry in less than two years. Councillors heard updates on the planned multi-million pound community diagnostic centre (CDC) in the city at a meeting yesterday (September 27.)
The centre will open in the Paybody Building by the city's health centre on Stoney Stanton Road, after the building is refurbished. The new hub will be partly funded by a £18.4m cash injection for Coventry and Rugby awarded by the NHS last year to improve these services.
Testing for heart and lung problems will be prioritised at the centre. This is because heart failure and COPD are known to be widespread in the local community, papers for the meeting said.
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The site will also focus on capacity to diagnose cancers, including the ability to provide MRI CT and ultrasound support. Coventry University is looking into setting up a teaching and learning space on one of the building's floors, the report added.
Some different ways of running the centre are being considered, including a "one-stop clinic" and letting local GPs run some tests there. "The new facility will offer a significant increase in diagnostic capacity for the Coventry population and when completed will welcome around 90,000 patients per annum," said the report.
"This increase in capacity will aid healthcare services to see and diagnose patients in a timely manner." Work is happening to make the diagnostic hub more "available and accessible" to people, Justine Richards from University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire told the meeting.
"We are seeing a better opportunity to really tackle wider inequalities," she added. A timeline shows the building is considered likely to open before April 2025.
