Torbay’s MP, Kevin Foster, has welcomed today’s (Friday 4th August 2023) Government announcement a new community diagnostic centre (CDC) will open in Market Street, in the heart of Torquay Town Centre, next year.
The project will not only see new health facilities created, but regenerate a large derelict site in the Town Centre, bringing with it vital footfall for neighbouring businesses. The new facility will increase diagnostic capacity and reduce waiting times, with state-of-the-art equipment to deliver MRI, CT, ultrasound, X-ray, echocardiography, ECG, lung function, sleep studies and holter tests and scans. Once fully operational, the CDC will have capacity to deliver up to 36,971 checks, tests and scans a year. It will be fully opening in 2024.
The new Torquay facility is one of thirteen new community diagnostic centres (CDCs) being launched across the country today as part of government plans to cut NHS waiting lists. CDCs focus on treating patients that feature most predominantly on the elective and cancer backlogs including those with breast, prostate, lung and bowel cancer. A temporary site in Newton Abbot will open in December to provide the service until the main site is ready in Torquay next year.
Five of these independent sector-led CDCs will operate in the South West of England, with permanent sites fully opening in 2024 in Redruth, Bristol, Torquay, Yeovil and Weston Super Mare. Additional diagnostic testing capacity is already being rolled out in the region via the use of mobile diagnostic facilities, to provide additional diagnostic services while these sites are constructed. The details of the new facility for Torquay were confirmed in a letter to Torbay MP Kevin Foster from the Minister for Health and Secondary Care.
Kevin Foster MP said: “Two issues raised regularly with me are our NHS services and the state of Torquay Town Centre, so it is great to have an announcement which will benefit both. This investment will not only bring better health facilities and services to our bay, but see a derelict site regenerated as part of getting the wider Torquay Town Deal regeneration plans underway.”
He added: “Using a Town Centre location helps reduce pressure on infrastructure at the Torbay Hospital site such as car parking, whilst also bringing vital additional footfall into the Town Centre to support wider regeneration plans. The prospect of securing this investment into the Town Centre is something Conservative Councillors and I have pushed for some time. Clear commitments to deliver the regeneration of Torquay Town Centre and projects under the £21.9m Torquay Town Deal from the new Conservative administration at Torbay Council have helped secure this result.”
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