New health centre in Yeovil will 'help save lives'

The centre is scheduled to open in winter 2024

A new hospital centre that will deliver more than 70,000 tests and appointments per year has received planning approval.

Building work for a new diagnostic centre next to Yeovil District Hospital is expected to begin in February.

It will provide radiology, endoscopy, cardiology and audiology diagnostic tests, as well as outpatient appointments.

The centre is scheduled to open in winter 2024.

Dr Cen Thomas, a consultant radiologist at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Rapid access to diagnostic tests will help save lives and this new community diagnostic centre for Yeovil and surrounding region will help to achieve this."

In addition to the upcoming Yeovil Diagnostic Centre and the Taunton Diagnostic Centre, that opened in September 2021, the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has also opened two ophthalmology diagnostic centres - one in Yeovil town centre and the other on the Blackbrook Business Park in Taunton.

David Shannon, director of strategy and digital development for the Trust, said: "This new community diagnostic centre will give patients, particularly in the east of Somerset and west Dorset, quicker access to diagnostic tests that inform their diagnoses and treatment.

"All of these facilities expand our diagnostic capacity and mean that patients do not need to go into our busy hospitals for some diagnostic tests and capacity... is freed up for patients who require more complex care."