Dr Luke Evans, Member of Parliament for Bosworth, welcomes capacity to conduct more than 125,000 scans and tests in Hinckley as £14 million of funding is confirmed in a huge boost to Hinckley and the surrounding area.
As part of funding announced by the Government to tackle the Covid-19 backlog, Hinckley Hospital is set to benefit from a Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) which will bring capabilities for MRI and CT scans, ultrasound, X-rays and blood testing to Bosworth.
The announcement of 19 new CDC’s across the country follows record investment into health and social care with the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement committing to an additional £8 billion for health and social care in 2024/25.
Dr Luke supported the application by Hinckley Hospital and local NHS stakeholders and lobbied the Health Secretary directly for this new testing unit, as part of his campaign to improve healthcare across Bosworth.
After funding was confirmed, the local MP raised this in the House of Commons but said “we are looking for more” as he asked Health Minister Maria Caulfield to meet with him and discuss the business case for unlocking £7 million of funding for a Day Case Unit at Hinckley Hospital, which would enable people to undergo procedures locally.
This further tranche of diagnostic centres will take the total of approved CDC’s to 127, over 80% of the Government’s intention to open up to 160 testing units across the country which will enable a further 9 million additional tests to take place a year by 2025.
Those currently up and running have delivered more than 2.4 million tests, checks and scans since July 2021, speeding up access to important services for patients and reducing waiting times.
Dr Luke Evans, the Member of Parliament for Bosworth, said: “It is fantastic news for our community that we’ll be receiving further funding and investment into local healthcare.
“The capacity to conduct over 125,000 tests, scans and checks in our area is hugely welcome for local people who would otherwise have to travel into Leicester or the George Eliot Hospital for these much-needed services.
“I have been pleased to hear from stakeholders at the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) that they are moving quickly on this and hope to have planning and delivery in place as soon as possible.”
A new Elective Recovery Taskforce met for the first time at Number 10 Downing Street on Wednesday 7th December to deliver on the remaining targets, including eliminating 18-month waits by April 2023 and waits of longer than one year by March 2025.
Steve Barclay, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said: “The NHS is facing an unprecedented challenge to tackle covid backlogs.
“Hardworking staff have made strong progress but I want to turbocharge our current plans to bust the backlog and help patients get the treatment they need.
“The taskforce will look at sensible steps to utilise all existing capacity to slash waiting lists while ensuring the NHS always remains free at the point of use.”
