MODULAR CONSTRUCTION
How modular construction is helping local healthcare
In recent years, the healthcare sector has been undergoing a significant transformation, with a focus on improving the accessibility and efficiency of crucial diagnostic services. Here, Phil Pavey, MD at Algeco Offsite, looks at how – as he puts it – ‘the latest platform design solutions are helping to roll out the benefits of Community Diagnostic Centres faster than other construction techniques’.
Main image: Algeco points out that CDCs ‘provide local communities with fast, flexible access to a range of checks, scans, and tests, reducing the number of hospital visits, and cutting waiting times’. Inset: CDCs support more ‘joined-up’ care across primary, community, and secondary healthcare settings.
Finding out what is wrong with a patient is vital to treating them as early as possible. Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) provide essential tests and scans to patients, allowing for faster and more accurate diagnoses. They are a crucial component of a modern healthcare system, providing patients with access to planned diagnostic care, closer to home. These centres were recommended following the 2020 review of NHS diagnostics capacity by Professor Sir Mike Richards, with the goal of improving patient experience and outcomes. CDCs delivered using the latest offsite techniques offer much-needed, cost-effective diagnostic facilities with a short build time. They provide local communities with fast, flexible access to a range of checks, scans, and tests, reducing the number of hospital visits, and cutting waiting times. As a result, they play a vital role in improving population health outcomes by diagnosing health conditions earlier, increasing capacity in the diagnostic
service, and reducing health inequalities by ensuring equal access to care for all individuals. Additionally, CDCs support more ‘joined-up’ care
across primary, community, and secondary healthcare settings. Thirteen new CDCs have already delivered 742,000 additional scans, tests, and checks a year, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Diagnostic test demand continues to increase Despite the progress that has already been made, demand for diagnostic tests continues to increase, with more than 85% of NHS patients now requiring this service. This waiting list has been growing steadily since 2008, and – as of April 2023 – around 1.6 million people in England were waiting for a diagnostic test. Over the past 12 months, 24.6 million checks and scans have been carried out, and the latest CDCs have now contributed more than four million towards this target.
However, the national target
is that 99% of patients should wait less than six weeks for a diagnostic test. The UK currently has less diagnostic equipment than comparable countries – with 8.8 CT scanners per million population, we rank 25th out of
58 Health Estate Journal March 2025
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