Nottingham: Work to start on city centre NHS diagnostic centre

The centre will initially offer about 100,000 appointments a year, rising to a planned 140,000

A new state-of-the-art medical centre offering MRI, CT and ultrasound scans is to be built in the centre of Nottingham.

The Community Diagnostic Centre will be located on the site of the former Broadmarsh shopping centre, which has been partially demolished.

It is planned to eventually provide 140,000 appointments a year, supporting the work of hospital consultants.

It is due to open in spring 2025, eventually employing 135 staff.

Other services will include X-rays, echocardiography, ECG, and lung function testing.

Officials said it would allow for more rapid diagnosis of conditions such as cancer, which in turn will help patients access the life-saving treatments more quickly.

The centre is part of a wider redevelopment of the largely derelict Broadmarsh site

Dr Mark Simmonds is deputy medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, which will be staffing and running the centre.

He said: "We know people are waiting too long for their diagnostics and tests at the moment.

"What this does is increase our capacity for the hospital and the wider NHS to ensure those waiting lists are kept to a minimum.

"Having a building that is so central to Nottingham and so central to the tram, bus, road and rail access is really important.

"The Broadmarsh centre has been in need of redevelopment for some time and it is absolutely fantastic that the NHS and Nottingham University Hospitals is playing such a central role in redeveloping this area."

City council leader, David Mellen, said: "The Community Diagnostic Centre is exactly the kind of facility everyone wants to see at Broad Marsh.

"It will provide a boost for businesses and jobs in the area by increasing footfall. By reusing part of the frame of the old shopping centre, as proposed in the Broad Marsh vision, the building will support the city's ambitions to be carbon neutral by 2028."

The Lister Gate facility will be the second such centre in Nottinghamshire, after plans were announced for a centre in Mansfield, to be run by Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

The city council has missed out three times on government cash to redevelop the wider Broadmarsh site.