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An investment of £237 million into new Community Diagnostic Centres has prompted queries from the SoR over where the staff to deliver these promises will come from.
The government announced that the funding for the Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) will enable patients to get quicker tests closer to home, with money dedicated to four new centres, the expansion of 17 existing ones, and the enhancement of a further 15 to boost diagnostic capacity.
However, concerns from the SoR have emphasised the need for a comprehensive workforce plan to support these goals, one which has yet to be delivered.
'The full benefits will be compromised'
Richard Evans, CEO of the SoR, said: “The aims of the CDC programme are excellent. We all know that services provided close to people’s homes and away from acute hospital sites can provide opportunities for earlier diagnosis and integrated care.
“However, as the SoR has repeatedly stated, without the workforce growth to staff these facilities, the full benefits of CDC expansion will be compromised. This will either be due to under-provision of service in CDCs or a reduction in radiography staff in acute settings.
“In many areas, both deficits will be evident until we see vacancy freezes lifted and a proper workforce plan that ensures diagnostic demand can be met now and into the future.”
Funding announced today is part of the extra £26 billion per year the government is investing in the NHS.
While the SoR welcomes the ambitions of improved patient outcomes and efficiencies promised by CDCs, current staffing levels are not enough to meet these rising demands. Staff are being overstretched, as the workforce is required to cover the new and expanding CDCs while also maintaining service levels within the acute hospital setting.
Dean Rogers, executive director of industrial strategy at the SoR, said: "What new staff there are have been recruited internationally, which we have actively supported, but which the government now wants to make much more difficult with plans to double qualifying periods for settled status. This would be a recruitment and retention 'own goal' that needs to be addressed.
"Suddenly increasing demand like this without a serious workforce plan and adequate investment in additional staff is potentially dangerous and ultimately self-defeating.”
A long way to go
Four new CDCs, all equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, will open in Gorton, Luton, Boston and Bideford during the 2026/27 period.
A further 32 centres will be expanded and improved with new scanning equipment, outpatient clinic space and additional testing facilities.
Of these, 17 will be physically expanded with new rooms and state-of-the-art scanning and diagnostic equipment to increase the range and volume of tests each centre can offer.
The remaining 15 will receive targeted enhancements, adding specialist kit, new clinic rooms or additional services such as audiology, ophthalmology and respiratory care to existing facilities.
Health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “Thanks to this government’s investment and modernisation, the NHS delivered a record number of tests and scans last year. But there’s still a long way to go before we’re catching disease on time.
“As part of the record investment we are making in the NHS’s recovery, these new CDCs are part of the biggest expansion in NHS diagnostics in a generation - continuing the progress we’re making and helping save lives.
“We’re not just investing in more, but delivering differently. The NHS should fit around people’s lives, not require patients to fit their lives around the NHS. Community Diagnostic Centres mean patients can get tests, checks and scans while they’re doing their shopping on the weekend or on the way to pick up the kids from school - without travelling across town to a hospital.”
(Image: Wes Streeting, photo by Alishia Abodunde/ Stringer/ Getty Images)