News Beat
Scarborough CDC to ‘start activity’ next month despite planning issues
Karin Smyth, a minister in the Department of Health and Social Care, has said that the Scarborough community diagnostics centre (CDC) is scheduled to “begin delivering activity in February” and is expected to become fully operational in March.
From April, the CDC at Hopper Hill Road in Eastfield, will offer “at least one service with 12 hours a day, seven days a week, extended hours”.
However, a retrospective planning application for the CDC, submitted last summer, is still pending approval with North Yorkshire Council.
The 1,480 sqm Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) at Scarborough Business Park in Eastfield will provide ultrasound, X-ray, MRI, CT, and cardiorespiratory facilities for assessment and diagnosis of patients, along with the associated recovery and support spaces.
In its retrospective planning application, the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the sustainable two-storey hospital building “will enable patients in Scarborough to easily access the facility”.
The new CDC will “allow patients to access planned diagnostic care nearer to home without the need to attend acute hospital sites,” the plan states.
Residents and Seamer Parish Council have raised concerns about the retrospective nature of the proposal.
Dan Jewitt, of Elite Strength and Fitness, said: “Such action undermines the purpose of the planning system, which exists to ensure that all developments are thoughtfully designed, safe, and in the public interest.”
He added: “As a new business based in Scarborough town centre, we strongly hope that this application is refused – both to uphold proper development control and to protect the continued vitality of our town centre.”
The CDC programme was launched under the Conservative Government and Scarborough’s CDC was originally proposed to “open in the town centre near Scarborough train station in December 2023 and offer 91,000 additional checks a year once fully operational”.
Karin Smith MP added: “This supports the Government’s commitment in the Elective Reform Plan to open CDCs 12 hours per day, seven days a week so that patients can access vital diagnostic tests around their busy working lives.103 CDCs are now open across these extended hours, an increase of 40 since July 2024.”
She added: “The Scarborough Gateway Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) has been delivering diagnostic activity since October 2023 from a temporary location at Bridlington Hospital.
“To date, the CDC has delivered 57,962 diagnostic tests, including magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, phlebotomy, and echocardiography.”
