Just one in 10 scans moved to community centres despite push

In August, the most recent data, there were a total of 723,243 CT scans conducted across the NHS, 59,300 (8 per cent) of which took place in community diagnostic centres.

Meanwhile, there were a total of 398,199 MRI scans, 53,572 (13.5 per cent) of which were carried out at CDCs.

This compares with 5 per cent and 9 per cent respectively for August 2023.

Taken together, CT and MRI scans made up 48 per cent (1,121,442 out of 2,339,119 tests) of all core diagnostic activity recorded by NHS England in August this year.

One of the main aims of the CDC programme, in its third year, was to improve diagnostic accessibility, and reduce pressure on hospitals by shifting where many tests, including CT and MRI — key scans for detecting cancer — take place.

While MRI, CT and overall diagnostic activity at CDCs recorded by NHSE is up on last year (CDCs accounted for 6 per cent of all tests in August 2023 and 10 per cent in August this year), one expert told HSJ that progress had been “slower than hoped.”

Earlier this year, NHSE introduced minimum activity levels for individual CDCs, although it has not made any commitments on what proportion of overall diagnostic activity should take place in these settings. 

The new Labour government has made moving care from hospitals into the community one of its three strategic shifts for transforming the health service, and this includes shifting more diagnostics to “neighbourhood” health centres.

According to NHSE figures, the cumulative number of tests conducted at CDCs was 10,433,957 in August 2024 – up from 9,952,912 in the previous month. 

A diagnostic policy source said that while overall CDC activity was increasing, most “high-volume” work continued to take place in acute hospitals.

Demand for diagnostic services has been increasing over the past decade and is expected to continue as part of a drive to identify and treat problems while they are more treatable, and drive up survival rates, many of which the UK lags peers on.

An NHS Strategy Unit report for integrated care boards in the Midlands, published last year, found that, despite the benefits, the “rapid” growth in demand for tests in hospitals was hampering flow, both in emergency care and planned care. This suggests a further shift in capacity for planned tests towards CDCs may help.

An NHSE spokesperson said: “Actually, community diagnostic centres capacity has grown by more than 100 per cent over the past year alone, delivering more than 50,000 tests a week with plans to expand even further over the coming months.

“The centres have been created to provide additional capacity, allowing hundreds of thousands of patients to be seen closer to home, rather than replacing diagnostic services in hospitals.”

This story was updated at 14:57 to include NHSE’s statement