A £25m medical centre could be built on Colin Campbell Court after all, bringing a major boost to Plymouth city centre. The Government has confirmed funding for a new Community Diagnostic Centre to be built in the West End.
The building is not the £40m health hub that was expected to go on Colin Campbell Court before NHS Devon said it couldn’t afford to pay for it. The funding comes from a different source and the Diagnostic Centre will have a different purpose but there is jubilation in the city that a medical centre will be built and could kick-start other health-related investment and even revive the health hub plan.
Cllr Mark Lowry, Labour’s cabinet member for finance, said: “Clearly this is great news for the city centre and for the health of our residents. Not only will this ease the pressure off services at Derriford (hospital), it will increase the number of people in and around the West End, supercharge the regeneration of this part of the city centre and, vitally, will mean it is easier for people living nearby to access services more easily.”
The Government announced Plymouth as a site for one of eight new Community Diagnostic Centres. Details of when work will start, how the building will look, and where exactly it will be built have yet to be determined.
In March it was revealed that health chiefs were considering the former Two Trees site in Union Street. But in a letter to Tory MP Johnny Mercer, Health Minister Will Quince said it was earmarked for Colin Campbell Court.
Its siting there would help regenerate the city centre and provide wider access to critical diagnostic tests. Plymouth City Council has been working closely with University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and the new facility will provide outpatient diagnostic tests including MRI, CT, x-ray, lung cancer screening, ultrasound, audiology, ECG, point of care testing, and blood tests. More services could be added to this list in the future.
The organisations have been collaborating closely on the scheme and welcomed today’s Government announcement. It is hoped the new centre will offer 91,600 imaging tests, alongside a similar number of other tests, when services are live and fully running. A joint team is now working on implementing the design for the centre and constructing it. The land is currently owned by the council and the site for the proposed building has already been cleared, helping to speed up the development.
While the design and planning process is progressing, plans are in train to host a temporary mobile scanning unit on the site to enable people living in or near the city centre to use facilities closer to their homes as soon as possible. The Diagnostic Centre is therefore expected to start offering some tests from as early as September 2023.
While the proposed centre will not be as large as the original planned West End Health and Wellbeing Hub, the initial preparation and groundwork carried out for the now stalled Cavell Centre or health hub means that the scheme can get off to a flying start.
Cllr Lowry said: “We have been working on health-led regeneration scheme on this site since 2018 and while there have been set backs, this deal has been made possible because of all the work that has gone on in the background, the initial demand studies, building partnerships, clearing the site and putting the land in as our contribution.”
Stuart Windsor, future hospitals director at University Hospitals Plymouth, said: “The location in the city’s West End, one of the more deprived areas of Plymouth, is key as it means we can offer high quality diagnostics tests to people close to where they live, making it easier for them to attend appointments. We know that access to good, early diagnostics is key because having those tests early and getting an early diagnosis means people have a greater chance of a better outcome when there is something wrong. This should therefore reduce health inequities for those living in areas of greater deprivation and improve overall health outcomes in Plymouth.”
Luke Pollard, Labour MP for Sutton and Devonport, said the announcement of the funding was great news for the city and hoped it would kick-start more medical investment in the West End, possibly even the resurrection of the health hub. He said: “It’s an exceptional opportunity to build a health village in the city centre. There are a lot of projects going on, we still believe that the super health hub and health village is the right project for Plymouth.”
He added: “Getting the funding is the first step, but it is not ‘job done’ yet. We still have work to do.”
Johnny Mercer, Tory MP for Moor View, received a personal letter from the minister confirming the funding. He said: “I am determined to improve the health care provision for everyone in the city. I am pleased with this announcement but will continue to work hard to improve both the dental and primary care provision across our city.”
Want more news? Sign up to our bespoke newsletters here
Read more: