Prime Minister visits new Community Diagnostic Centre in Oldham

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak paid a visit to Greater Manchester’s Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Oldham.

Part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA), the £10 million diagnostic centre is backed by government investment focused on creating additional diagnostic testing capacity within local communities.

The Oldham CDC opened its doors to patients in December 2022 and is one of the country’s largest out of hospital diagnostic centres and will serve more than 30,000 people a year.
 

Read more: Rochdale borough residents to benefit from Oldham Community Diagnostic CentrePublished: 23 December 2022

Professor Eileen Fairhurst MBE, Chairman at the NCA said: “We are delighted to host a visit from Mr Sunak. He was able to see first-hand the difference that can be made by bringing our services out into the community and making them more accessible to patients and service users.

“Delivering rapid and early diagnosis is a priority for us and it allows patients who require treatment to start it sooner. We have started to see the progress being made in our Oldham CDC with recent data already showing some patients are receiving a quicker diagnosis.

“The CDC is also able to offer patients multiple tests at one location making it more convenient for patients. Having these tests at a community venue means patients don’t need to travel to busy hospital locations where appointments can sometimes be affected by urgent and emergency patients.”

 

 

During his visit Mr Sunak met with colleagues and patients at the centre.

The Oldham CDC has been developed in partnership with Alliance Medical Limited (AML) who have provided a range of diagnostic equipment for the facility including a PET-CT scanner, this being the first one available to patients in the Northeast of Greater Manchester.

Richard Evans, Managing Director of Alliance Medical added “It was extremely special to be able to welcome the Prime Minister to the Oldham CDC and highlight the great partnership work between the NHS and Alliance Medical. This CDC furthers our support for the government’s programme to roll out even more centres like this across the country.”

The Oldham CDC is open 7 days a week, 8am to 8pm and will be opening up a new endoscopy unit on the site later this year.