New community diagnostic centre gets the all clear at Bath Independent Hospital.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid recently announced funding for new Community Diagnostic Centres around the country.

Millions of patients will benefit from earlier diagnostic tests closer to home thanks to 40 new community diagnostic centres set to open across England.

As part of phase one of this funding, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (BSW CCG) was successful in a bid for financial investment to accommodate an increase in diagnostic capacity within the region.

The Royal United Hospitals NHS Trust is working in partnership with the CCG to ensure diagnostic capacity is increased throughout the region and has progressed plans to introduce a new diagnostic centre 10 minutes from Bath.

The collective £4.4million investment will see a new centre be situated at Sulis Hospital Bath, which has already been supporting the NHS trust throughout the pandemic recovery. Last year Royal United Hospitals NHS Trust purchased the independent hospital following a competition review by the competitions market authority

Dr Peter Collins, Chief Medical Officer at Salisbury NHS FT and BSW Senior Responsible Officer for Diagnostics said:

“Our local teams have already made great progress in ramping scans and tests back up to pre-pandemic levels, and this new investment will help us go even further

“The first phase of funding will allow us to increase our diagnostic testing capacity with the addition of a new mobile MRI scanner. This type of scanner is vital for the diagnosis of a range of serious conditions including cancer."

Our hospital will soon start work on introducing a new MRI, the MAGNETOM Altea from Siemens Healthineers. The MRI allows for up to 50% faster routine scans with BioMatrix technology automatically adjusting scans to the individual patient. There are additional plans for a new SOMATOM^® X.cite CT scanner from Siemens Healthineers to be installed.

We are already making progress on supporting the region’s NHS waiting lists. Since August over 990 patients waiting to be treated by an NHS acute trust were successfully transferred and cared for by our passionate Sulis Hospital teams.

We recently appointed Mr Simon Milner as the new Hospital Director. Speaking with him it’s clear the hospital will continue supporting the NHS whilst maintaining its high quality and establish private services.

“We have already made great progress in supporting the region’s NHS waiting times. Having a private hospital owned by an NHS trust is highly unique. It sets the foundation for us to develop some innovative collaborations between the two healthcare sectors. The expansion of our diagnostic capacity and introduction of a new community Diagnostic Centre is just one example of how our partnership is going to benefit our region.

In addition to supporting NHS surge demand, we plan to reinvest our private practice success back into the local healthcare economy. It is a very exciting time for our hospital and an opportunity for our facility to become the provider of choice for all suitable patients.”

More recently, the hospital’s endoscopy department, responsible for providing endoscopic treatments and diagnostic examinations, was recently awarded JAG accreditation. A quality mark awarded to high-quality gastrointestinal endoscopy services by the Royal College of Physicians.

The new Diagnostic Centre will help achieve earlier diagnoses for a range of conditions including heart and lung disease, as well as cancer. Our aim is to provide both NHS and private patients easier, faster, and more direct access to the full range of diagnostic tests. Patients will benefit from a single managed service available closer to home, reducing the need to go to the NHS acute hospitals for tests.

Community Diagnostic Centres are one of the recommendations from Professor Sir Mike Richards, the first NHS national cancer director, who conducted a review of diagnostic services as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, published in 2019.

Our hospital is located 10 minutes from Bath and provides elective care for a range of conditions. Utilising the latest technology and a multi-disciplinary team of clinicians the hospital can provide comprehensive non-surgical and surgical treatment pathways.

The staff and clinicians pride themselves on quality and it is no surprise that Sulis Hospital Bath is rated outstanding for caring by the clinical care commission (CQC), a credit to all the hard work by the hospital’s clinical and support services staff.

If you’re interested about the services available at Sulis Hospital Bath you can enquire about fast tracking your care today.