Delay in opening of Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust’s one-stop shop for testing at St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping
The opening of Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust’s (PAHT) new community diagnostic centre (CDC) has been delayed until next spring.
The £14m facility at St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping will provide a one-stop testing for patients across West Essex and East Herts.
A sneak preview of progress so far was given to the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, Epping Forest MP Dr Neil Hudson, Nick Presmeg, executive director of adult social care at Essex County Council, and Tom Abell, chief executive of the new proposed Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB).
Dr Monica Bose, PAHT’s director of clinical support services and consultant gastroenterologist, said: “Our community diagnostic centre will transform care for our patients, with quicker and more local access to diagnostic tests and treatment close to patients’ homes.”
PAHT chief executive Thom Lafferty added: “Thank you to our partners for visiting our CDC at St Margaret’s Hospital. We were delighted to share our vision for neighbourhood health, with more integrated care for our community, closer to home.
“The CDC is integral to our plans to achieve this, together with working with our partners to improve patient care and experiences.”
The CDC was expected to open in the new year, but it is now set to welcome the first patients in the spring to accommodate “a short extension to the scope of work required”.
St Margaret’s has already ramped up capacity for MRI scans, X-rays and non-obstetric (non-pregnancy) ultrasounds. The new CDC will extend opening hours and add cardiology, ultrasound and respiratory equipment, plus two computerised tomography (CT) scanners and a new MRI scanner.
There will also be more phlebotomists to carry out blood tests.
As the main CDC welcomes its first patients, construction will continue on an extension to accommodate a fibroscanner to check for liver inflammation, an additional ultrasound, X-ray and space for trans-nasal endoscopy.
The set-up will enable the CDC to offer streamlined clinical care – known as pathways – for conditions including breathlessness, juvenile asthma and unscheduled bleeding on hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Other benefits will include rapid access care for chest pain; sleep studies; trans-nasal (via nose) endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal tract and urology, focused on prostate diagnostics.
As part of the CDC programme, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford offers extended hours for ultrasound, X-ray and audiology.