Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of community diagnostic hubs in South Shropshire constituency.

Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) are delivering additional, digitally connected, diagnostic capacity in England, providing patients with a co-ordinated set of tests in the community in as few visits as possible, to enable fast and accurate diagnoses

CDCs help to separate urgent and elective care, providing additional capacity in the community and relieving pressure on hospitals.

As of September 2025, CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks on 170 sites across the country and have delivered over 9.4 million tests, checks and scans, including large, standard, and hub and spoke models, since July 2024.

The Elective Reform Plan sets out that the Government will deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new CDCs. The locations of both new and expanded CDC schemes will be confirmed in due course. This is funded as part of the £600 million of capital investment for diagnostics in 2025/26, which my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out in the June 2025 statement.

There are no CDCs in the South Shropshire constituency. However, there is a CDC in Telford, the Shropshire CDC. Constituents may also have access to diagnostic services at the Royal Shrewsbury and Robert and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospitals. Diagnostic services are also available in the community hospitals run by the Shrewsbury Community Health NHS Trust in Bridgnorth, Ludlow, and Whitchurch, as well as the health centre in Oswestry.

CDCs, even if not local to a constituent, will add capacity to the wider integrated care system. They, therefore, benefit more than just those patients immediately close to them.