NHS hub set for Barnsley shopping centre

An NHS “diagnostic hub” is set to open in a Barnsley shopping centre, in a bid to reduce waiting times for healthcare.

The “community based diagnostic hub” will offer scans, tests, and checks, to speed up waiting times in an easy to access location.

South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System has secured £3million to open one hub in the Glass Works, and one at Montagu Hospital in Mexborough.

The Glass Works site is set to include ultrasounds, X-rays, breast screening phlebotomy, echocardiography and DEXA scanning, while the Montagu Hospital site will include CT and MRI services.

It is hoped that the hub will ease pressures on GPs – the British Medical Association say there are now just 0.45 fully qualified GPs per 1000 patients in England – down from 0.52 in 2015.

Professor Des Breen, medical director for the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Integrated Care System, said: “When people are unwell and experiencing ongoing signs or symptoms, their doctor might request diagnostic tests to confirm or rule out specific conditions or diseases.

“The Community Diagnostic Centres will be centres in convenient locations, often closer to where people live or easier to get to than larger hospital sites, that will provide diagnostic testing.

“The aspiration is that in the long term patients will be able to visit a local facility and have all (or as many as possible of) their tests done in the same place and on the same day.

“This would prevent patients from having to move backwards and forwards across healthcare sites as much as they currently do, from NHS site to NHS site, from specialist to specialist.

“Overall, this is a huge step forward in improving the patient experience in diagnosis, and we’re really excited to get plans underway for these initial sites while also planning more for the region.”

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