Plymouth Labour are celebrating the news that a bid which they submitted on the first day of taking control of the council has been successful, with the announcement of a new Community Diagnostic Centre in the city’s West End.
The centre, one of only eight announced across the country, will help regenerate the city centre and provide wider access to critical diagnostic tests.
Councillor Mark Lowry, Cabinet member for Finance, said: ”On the first day of our administration we submitted our application for this project and from that moment we have worked non-stop to get this project back on track.
“As the embargo has now been broken on this important announcement we are delighted to be able to share this news with residents who were so bitterly let down by the government’s withdrawal of funding for the city centre health hub in December.”
While the proposed centre will not be as large as the original planned community health hub the initial preparation and groundwork carried out means that the scheme can get off to a flying start.
It is hoped the new Centre will offer 91,600 imaging tests, alongside a similar number of other tests, when services are live and fully running and the Centre is expected to start offering some tests from as early as September 2023.
A joint team is now working on implementing the design for the centre and constructing it. The land is currently owned by the Council and the site for the proposed building has already been cleared, helping to speed up the development.
While the design and planning process is progressing, plans are in train to host a temporary mobile scanning unit on the site to enable people living in or near the city centre to use facilities closer to their homes as soon as possible.
The Labour-run council has been working closely with University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust on the project and the new facility will provide outpatient diagnostic tests including MRI, CT, x-ray, lung cancer screening, ultrasound, audiology, ECG, point of care testing, and blood tests. More services could be added in the future.
“Whatever is being claimed by others we have been working on a health-led regeneration scheme on this site since 2018,” said Cllr Lowry.
“While there have been setbacks, this deal has been made possible because of all the work that has gone on in the background, including a very recent substantial land transfer from Plymouth City Council to enable the project to proceed.
“Without the work of this Labour-run council and our partners this would not have happened.”
