Plans to invest £30 million developing two hospitals in east London have been agreed by the NHS.
The plans, approved by NHS North East London Integrated Care Board, are set to turn Mile End Hospital and Barking Community Hospital into full community diagnostic centres (CDCs).
The developments aim to reduce waiting times for tests, make tests easier to access and reduce inequalities so patients can get quicker treatment for a wide variety of conditions.
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Chief medical officer Dr Paul Gilluley from NHS North East London said: “This is great news for residents in north east London.
“The faster we can find out the causes of sickness, the faster we can treat people – reducing long term sickness and saving lives.
“Mile End Hospital and Barking Community Hospitals are well developed centres, but this extra investment will really help the NHS speed up processes and make them simpler for patients – for example reducing the number of visits people have to make to diagnostic centres.”
A public consultation on proposals to expand and develop CDCs in north east London ran from July to September this year.
Almost 400 people responded, with two out of three respondents agreeing with the proposal to develop Mile End Hospital and Barking Community Hospital.
Community diagnostic centres act as one-stop-shops for checks, scans and tests for a range of conditions.
They are set to house a range of diagnostic tools, including CT and MRI scans, ultrasounds and blood tests, some of which the hospitals have already installed.
The plans are part of a wider project in which the NHS in north east London will receive £39 million to build and run the centres across its boroughs over the next three years.
The proposals also included plans to look at the costs and benefits of developing other sites over the next few years, including at the King George Hospital in Ilford and St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub in Havering.
Building costs for the two hospitals, as well as running costs for the first few years, will come from NHS England.
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