Major £17.8 million expansion to NHS diagnostic services
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has been given approval by NHS England to
construct a brand new diagnostic centre next to Bridgwater Community Hospital.
The new £17.8 million state-of-the-art centre will provide a range of specialist
diagnostic and outpatient services to the population of Bridgwater and the
surrounding areas.
It follows the opening of a community diagnostic centre in Taunton in 2020, as well
as the development of a diagnostic centre next to Yeovil Hospital, which is expected
to open later this year.
The Bridgwater diagnostic centre will run a range of services from two CT scanners,
two MRI scanners, four outpatient rooms and two echocardiography/ultrasound
rooms.
This will enable the centre to provide the Bridgwater population with routine and
specialist cardiac and cancer scanning, alongside clinics – very much a one-stop
arrangement for appointments.
David Craig, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s programme director for the project,
said: “This development is fantastic news for people in Bridgwater and will improve
access to vital healthcare scans, as well as help us to reduce our waiting times.
“The new centre supports one of the three shifts of the NHS 10 Year Plan, which
involves transferring care from hospitals into local communities.
“Running across seven days a week, it will improve access for people in Bridgwater
and the surrounding areas to specialist care, with the centre expected to provide
almost 25,000 additional scans every year.
“We have this month applied for planning permission for the new centre, and if
approved, the new facility is likely to open in Summer 2026. It will be developed by
Ergea, a partner of our trust that provides imaging services.”
Gavin Brooksbank, head of implementation at Ergea, added: “We are delighted to be
working with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to deliver this state-of-the-art centre.
“Ergea is our managed equipment service provider and will be working alongside the
trust to deliver a centre with the latest technology that the local population would be
proud of.”
While the centre is in development, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has been working closely with Agito Medical to provide temporary MRI and CT scanners at Bridgwater Community Hospital, giving local people access to specialist scanning at the earliest opportunity, and to support the NHS’ plan to move more care into local neighbourhoods.
Dan Keeble, commercial director of Agito Medical, added: “We have built a strong partnership with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and together have set up an MRI and CT service that has so far seen 5,760 patients.”