The Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) at Eltham Community Hospital, South East London was officially opened yesterday (14 May 2025). Representatives at the opening included, colleagues and the clinical team from Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, South East London ICB, Community Health Partnerships, along with local councillors from the Royal Borough of Greenwich and MP for Eltham and Chislehurst Clive Efford.
The £8.2m CDC facility which will be overseen by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (LGT), will have the ability to provide up to 94,000 additional scans per year through x-rays, MRI and a new CT scanner amongst other diagnostic delivery.
The site will also have the capability to deliver 28,000 phlebotomy services annually, the expansion of the teledermatology department, which has doubled in size due to its success will accommodate further appointments, benefiting many patients from across the Bexley and Greenwich area.
Since diagnostic services began operating in April 2024, the site has already delivered almost 40,000 appointments. These additional appointments demonstrate the vast benefits it is already providing to improve health outcomes within a local community setting.
The national CDC Programme was an initiative set up in 2021 to support a reduction in the backlog of elective care and provide quicker diagnostic services closer to home. Since its inception, the programme has delivered over 8.54 million checks, tests and scans across 170 CDCs across England. (source: Review of NHS performance and delivery)
The CDC at Eltham Community Hospital is one of two CDCs in the South East London locality. Existing services at the site have been reorganised through various modifications within the building, enhancing the facility’s utilisation and enabling additional diagnostic appointments. The site also accommodates a range of other healthcare services, including musculoskeletal, mental health, adult support, and two GP surgeries. The provision of diagnostic care at Eltham Community Hospital will facilitate the integration of care under one roof, reducing the need to attend the local acute hospital. It will also reduce waiting times, speed up diagnosis and will bring much needed services closer to home within a neighbourhood care setting.
Throughout the CDC project, Community Health Partnerships (CHP) team have worked closely with Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, CHP’s LIFTCo partner Infracare South-East London Ltd, South East London ICB and our private partners in bringing the CDC vision to life. CHP has played an instrumental role in helping to identify local system needs to improve healthcare provision and facilitate the programme of works on site. Working in collaboration with LGT and their diagnostic clinical leads and service providers ensuring effective planning and communication to meet the Trust’s programme for delivery.
I’m delighted to see the CDC at Eltham Community Hospital fully operational. The project has been a culmination of collaborative working across both NHS and private sector teams to deliver this successful outcome. The additional diagnostic services will transform healthcare provision across the Bexley and Greenwich communities and improve patient care, and I’m pleased to see it’s already making a positive impact. This project at Eltham is a great example of the benefits of the NHS LIFT estate in supporting care out of hospital, and bringing services closer to home’
It’s days like today – launching such a comprehensive and multi-faceted new healthcare service in the heart of Eltham – that make working in the NHS so fulfilling. We know that Eltham CDC has already been delivering for thousands of patients across south east London, and now that X-ray, CT and MRI are up-and-running, even more people from our community can get their care closer to home, with less time to wait. I’m tremendously grateful to all those in our Trust, in the south east London NHS system, and our external partners, for bringing this Community Diagnostic Centre to fruition
I, my fellow Directors, the organisations we represent, and our supply chain partners, are delighted to continue our 20-year collaboration with our public sector partners to support the improved delivery of localised healthcare in South East London and we welcome the additional capacity these changes will bring and the lives they will improve.
The reconfiguration work at Eltham Community Hospital to support the CDC Programme demonstrates the adaptability of the NHS LIFT estate. The majority of CHPs facilities are situated in local communities and are well positioned to support in shaping the development of neighbourhood care and increasing productivity to support the three shifts as set out by the Government.
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