More services are now available for patients at the new Northgate Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) in Great Yarmouth.
The CDC opened on 28 April this year, with patients initially attending for CT scans only following the completion of the first phase of development work.
Now, the second phase of work has been completed, which has seen the creation of consultation rooms from where our teams can offer a range diagnostics including cardiac monitoring and a sleep and lung function service.
Patients referred for CT scans and other diagnostic tests may now be invited to appointments at Northgate CDC as an alternative location to scans provided at the main James Paget Hospital site in Gorleston.
James Paget Chief Operating Officer Charlotte Dillaway said: “We are delighted that our Community Diagnostic Centre at Northgate is now offering patients a range of tests and scans using the latest equipment within a fully modernised environment, in a community location.
“With Northgate now bring additional services online, it means we have opened three new diagnostic facilities within the space of just over a year, with the CDC at the James Paget becoming operational in July 2024, followed by the Oulton Suite, also at the main hospital site, at the start of this year.
“Together, these new facilities provide extra diagnostic capacity, helping our patients access tests more quickly, resulting in swifter diagnoses which are so important for treating many conditions.”
Since opening in April, staff at the Northgate CDC have carried out nearly 700 CT scans. Among the patients who have attended the site for a scan is David Parsley.
Mr Parsley was told he needed a CT scan on his knee – and fully expected to have to drive from his home in Great Yarmouth to the James Paget.
So when he heard that his scan appointment was at the Paget’s new Northgate CDC, just a few minutes’ away from his home, he was delighted.
“I didn’t know they carried out scans at the Northgate, so it was a surprise,” said the 83-year-old. It was just so convenient. It’s quite a journey to the Paget and when you get there, it can be a job to find parking – so having this facility nearby is great.”
Mr Parsley said he could see how the facility would benefit not only patients in Yarmouth but also from other communities too.
“There’s a bus stop just outside the Centre, which means it’s ideal for people coming in from the villages north of Yarmouth, such as Hemsby and Ormesby,” he added.
Northgate CDC is run by staff from the James Paget, and is located in the former Cranbrook Building on the Northgate Hospital site, managed by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
It has been developed with funding from NHS England as part of a commitment to developing Community Diagnostic Centres nationwide.
Cardiac and lung function services are now based at both the Oulton Suite at the James Paget Hospital and the Northgate CDC, with lung diagnostics going live at Northgate later this month; the sleep service is now based at Northgate only, having moved from the Norfolk Coastal Centre site at Beacon Park, Gorleston.
