Plymouth City Council is donating land to the NHS so a second community diagnostics centre (CDC) can be built in the city’s West End.

A planning application will shortly be submitted for a four-storey building at Colin Campbell Court, designed to complement the services of the first £25 million NHS England-funded centre, which is due to be completed in May and will welcome the first patients on June 23.

The side-by-side facilities will significantly expand diagnostic capacity for the local population, says University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.

CDC2 will be smaller but could also be a primary care venue where local GP surgeries will be relocated.

It will house advanced diagnostic equipment, including an additional MRI scanner, DEXA scanning facilities and ultrasound services, alongside dedicated consult rooms for cancer care pathways and specialised clinics for phlebotomy and Point of Care Testing (POCT).

The trust says that this project is a key component of a nationally recognised NHS model of care that aims to provide essential healthcare services closer to where patients live, thereby reducing the pressure on acute hospital sites and improving the overall patient experience.  

A ‘health village’ is part of Plymouth City Council’s plan for the regeneration of the West End to tackle health inequalities and support the early detection of disease. 

The council and NHS trust are asking people to take part in a public consultation on the second community diagnostics centre by going to the website www.plymouthhospitalstrust.nhs.uk 

Council cabinet member for finance and city centre champion Cllr Mark Lowry (Lab, Southway) said this multi-million-pound land deal, where the council would transfer the site to the NHS for a nominal fee of £1, as it did with the first CDC, would ensure the development could happen promptly.

Cabinet member for health and adult social care, Mary Aspinall (Lab, Sutton and Mount Gould) said: “This is really welcome news. We are really pleased we have been able to support the land for CDC2. There is also ample space to provide better and more disabled parking, especially if the three GP surgeries come here."

Cllr Aspinall said that the recently opened dental training clinic in New George Street and the community diagnostic centres showed that Plymouth City Council was “taking health seriously”.

She told a city council meeting on Monday that 120 contractors were working at the CDC1 site each day to keep the project on programme.

The scaffolding was coming down, and internal works to install specialist equipment were happening at a pace.

Once fully operational, the centre will see 330 patients a day through the doors, and 91,600 imaging tests will be carried out each year, plus a range of other tests.

Recruitment is underway for 120 staff who will work at CDC1 and support the new services. Others will be transferred from Derriford to make up a 190-strong workforce.

Cllr Aspinall said teams from phlebotomy, audiology, imaging and physical measurements had visited the site to review their future work spaces and had been working with contractors BAM Construction and their consultants to provide expert help to finalise the building.