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 Holland and the Deepings 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.

There are no CDCs in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency. However, there are three CDCs located within the NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board, including the Grantham CDC in Grantham. CDCs, even if not local to a constituent, will add capacity to the wider integrated care system and will benefit more than just those patients immediately close to them. Diagnostic services can also be accessed across existing acute capacity, such as at Peterborough City Hospital.

CDCs are now delivering additional tests and checks in 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. 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.

NHS England is working with local National Health Service systems to identify the most appropriate locations for additional investment, including new CDCs. New CDCs should be positioned in a location which addresses local need and address health inequalities. Details of future sites will be set out in due course.  The locations of both new and expanded CDC schemes will be confirmed in due course.

Over the longer term, as set out in our 10-Year Health Plan, we expect more care to be delivered in community settings, and nearer to patients’ home by default, for example through greater use of point of care tests.