News article

CDC News Scanner: 28 August 2024

Date

28/08/2024

Posted by

Carrie Goldsworthy

In this edition of our community diagnostic centre news roundup: Healthwatch England survey finds CDCs are speeding up access to tests, diagnostic tests delivered ahead of targets by Sussex CDC, CDC success highlighted amongst evidence for NHS review, and updates from CDCs around the country.

Healthwatch England survey finds CDCs are speeding up access to tests

A recent survey of patients who visited a CDC for their diagnostic tests found 93% had good experiences and 31% said getting the test done quickly was their top priority when choosing where to get a diagnostic test.

Healthwatch England Chief Executive Louise Ansari said in the Guardian: “Our research shows that patients have had positive experiences of using community diagnostic centres, with timely, more personal and convenient care. Most of them received quicker tests and so had clarity on their diagnosis sooner.”

Most people weren’t offered a choice of location (78%) or time (61%) around their appointments – which people reported they would have liked when the appointment offered wasn’t ideal for them.

Read more on Healthwatch England’s website

Sussex CDCs report 117,061 tests delivered since the start of the year

Sussex Community Diagnostic Centres have delivered 117,061 tests, above the targeted 117,047 tests and scans, SussexWorld reported.

Interim Chief Medical Officer for NHS Sussex, Amy Dissanayake, said:

“Community diagnostic centres are at the centre of our efforts to reduce waiting times and ensure timely access to essential healthcare services. Community diagnostic centres provide greater access for patients who need tests to support critical care decisions, ultimately improving outcomes for all our communities.

Read more on SussexWorld

Feedback wins contract award for Queen Victoria Hospital CDC solution

Feedback Medical was recently rewarded a contract to continue providing our Bleepa CDC solution with Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This followed on from a successful pilot programme in which by utilising Bleepa, the CDC was able to deliver a substantial reduction in wait times vs national targets.

“This contract award is a compelling validation of our technology. QVH is an example that speaks to the rest of the NHS and is the pioneer of the symptom-based pathway on Bleepa, an approach which has demonstrated huge potential to cut wait times and improve care for patients. This contract will give others the confidence to progress with this care model and our platform, allowing us to now move forward to capture both the regional and national opportunity in front of us and ultimately to bring better, faster care to patients across the UK,” said Feedback CEO Dr Tom Oakley.

Royal College of Pathologists highlights success of CDCs amongst NHS review evidence

The Royal College of Pathologists has submitted evidence to Lord Darzi’s review of the NHS, highlighting the issues and challenges facing pathology services.

Amongst the concerns, the College highlighted the importance of pathology services in healthcare, which are involved in 70% of all healthcare decisions and over 95% of clinical pathways.

Amongst the issues raised were an inadequately resourced workforce and ageing IT systems with a lack of interoperability, hindering effective diagnosis.

CDCs and automation of blood sciences, however, were highlighted as areas that were working well and should be further supported.

Read more on Pathologyinpractice:

Waiting lists data update

Data published by NHS England this month for statistics on referral to treatment times up to June 2024 showed that the waiting list rose very slightly to 7.62 million patients. Waits of longer than 65 weeks rose to 58,024 and waits of greater than 18 weeks remained constant at around 3.1 million.

Read more on NHS England’s website