The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire have formally inaugurated a Community Diagnostic Center (CDC) in Derbyshire.
The first of five local NHS facilities scheduled to open by 2025 is located at Whitworth Hospital in Matlock.
A variety of diagnostic procedures, including X-rays, blood tests, and ultrasounds, are offered at the hubs under one roof.
Since its phased launch in February, more than 7,000 patients have utilized the Matlock "one-stop shop.".
The government provided £29.9 million for the development of five facilities for Joined Up Care Derbyshire, the Integrated Care System for Derby and Derbyshire.
Additionally, the Matlock Hospitals League of Friends contributed an additional £140,000 to the Whitworth Hospital center.
The charity's chair, Peter Vincent, said: "We know that this new service will assist and support a great number of people in our neighborhoods and make scans, diagnoses, and treatments much more accessible to patients. ".
When the new center was formally inaugurated on Tuesday, the Duke and Duchess were given a tour.
According to Michelle Veitch, chief operating officer of Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, "the development and continued expansion of Community Diagnostic Centres in Derbyshire provides an opportunity to transform care and increase the number of people able to get quick and simple diagnoses for illnesses and then receive the treatment they need. ".
At Tamworth's Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital in Staffordshire, the following facility is scheduled to open.
By year's end, this center, which is close to the Derbyshire border, is expected to be finished. The first open MRI scanner in Derbyshire will be located at Ilkeston Hospital, and it is anticipated that it will be fully operational by January 2024. The last CDCs to open will be at Walton Hospital in Chesterfield in September 2024 and Florence Nightingale Community Hospital in Derby in the summer of 2024.
By health correspondent for BBC East Midlands Today Rob Sissons.
Community hospitals are once again thriving as a result of the NHS's massive backlog of work. .
There used to be a lot more community hospitals, which were smaller medical facilities located in towns or even villages outside of major cities and providing care closer to home.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought attention to the flexibility provided by the network of local sites for NHS managers.
Ilkeston and Whitworth cared for Covid patients in Derbyshire, relieving some of the pressure on overburdened large hospitals.
Now that there is a significant backlog in NHS treatment, various community sites located outside of large acute hospitals are being used to increase diagnostic capacity.
In order to diagnose health issues early and save more lives, it is thought that cutting down on test wait times is essential.
More than 31,000 patients in the East Midlands have reportedly been waiting more than a year to begin receiving NHS care.
Increasing access to diagnostic tests is one step toward solving that significant problem.
