The scandal of the £2 million Wisbech Community Diagnostic Centre - and how Fenland patients are being betrayed in favour of healthier, wealthier areas.
Cambridgeshire health bosses are refusing local patients the choice to be treated at the new £2.1m Wisbech Diagnostic Centre, forcing them to travel further by diverting them to Ely and other sites and wasting the millions invested in the new facilities.
When it opened, the NHS said “the new Community Diagnostic Centre in Wisbech brings state-of-the-art diagnostic services closer to people’s homes. It will play a vital role in helping to diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer and heart disease more quickly”, and that “Wisbech CDC includes mobile CT and MRI scanners and is open for 12 hours a day seven days a week for thousands of patients in Wisbech and nearby”.
Yet figures I have uncovered show in some months, such as April and October last year, no patients were treated at the Wisbech CDC and that in 7 of the last 21 months fewer than 100 patients a month were treated.
This is appalling when in another month last year as many as 946 patients were treated at the Wisbech CDC, which shows the facility has scope to see many more patients. Thousands of local patients are missing out on speedy, local treatment as a result.
Health bosses have also refused to add the Wisbech CDC to the places that scans and tests can be booked via the NHS App - artificially suppressing demand from patients many of whom would prefer to have their MRI or CT scan locally.
This is a textbook case of the failure of health bosses to use the investment in the NHS effectively to improve health productivity, resulting in poorer outcomes for local patients. It is also striking how secret they have kept this - where has the public information been on the new CDC services available or job adverts for staff?
Yet at the same time health bosses did prioritise recruitment and spending on diversity and inclusion hires, as the enclosed job offer illustrates https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/candidate/jobadvert/C9310-24-1113 . This is perverse when the same health bosses are transferring treatment from an area with higher health needs to the healthier, more affluent parts of the county.
As Secretary of State for Health I rolled out Community Diagnostic Centres across the country, including the Wisbech Community Diagnostic Centre, to provide a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to patients' homes and reducing the need for hospital visits.
After 21 months, there has been sufficient time for recruiting new staff to Wisbech and to get the facility up to full capacity. There is clearly sufficient demand from Fenland patients for MRI and CT scans if their GPs and the NHS App signpost this. I urge the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care System (ICS) to take immediate action by ensuring:
• Wisbech CDC is fully integrated into the NHS app.
• Fenland GPs are encouraged to book patients into Wisbech CDC.
• Staff recruitment at the Wisbech CDC is prioritised. We need an explanation as to why so little has been done over the last 21 months to recruit?
• A published plan on how the ICB will boost utilisation, including an awareness campaign for patients.
• The ICB to publish by postcode and by population group the data on take up of screening programmes, so we can see if patient participation is lower in Fenland in part due to difficulties of access.
Over £2 million has been invested in the new Wisbech CDC facilities. After 21 months of under utilisation, health bosses must now end the unnecessary delays in local diagnostic testing so patients receive the care they need close to home.
