Tests 'closer to home' as new diagnostic centre opens
BBCA £24.6 million community diagnostic centre has opened in Hinckley.
The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) says the centre is the first of its kind in the county.
The facility aims to offer patients a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home, it says, to ease pressure on busy hospitals.
Located next to the site of the former Hinckley and District Community Hospital in Mount Road, it will provide tests such as CT and MRI scans, X-rays and ultrasounds, phlebotomy, dermatology, audiology assessments and endoscopy.
The centre is expected to undertake 70,000 tests this year, increasing to more than 80,000 next year, the LLR ICB said.
Ros Chadwin, 52, from Burbage in Leicestershire, said she was able to have an X-ray in her lunch break after the centre opened on Friday.
"I was able to nip out and have it done, and nip back.
She added: "I've even got time to take the dog for a walk!"
Judith Spiers, head of nursing for community hospitals in Leicester, said: "The patients won't need to travel to the main hospitals, which takes pressure off the roads and the parking, but also it takes pressure off those sites so we can do the acute care there and the diagnostics can be done in centres like this."
Helen Hendley, director of planned care for LLR ICB, said: "It's going to make such a difference to the local area.
"We have made such inroads with our long waits for patients across the patch, but we know if we can get our diagnostics tests in quicker, we can then get to a treatment plan faster too."
Officially opening the centre was Conservative MP for Hinckley and Bosworth, Dr Luke Evans.
He said: "The next step is the £10 million day case unit over the road that we are working on, so that people can have their operations done here as well.
"The two centres would compliment each other perfectly."
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