Concerns grow that the new £12.5m facility at Eastfield, near Scarborough, poses a ‘potential threat’ to local services for patients further down the coast.
Plans for a new £12.5 million Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) being built on the outskirts of Scarborough have sparked concern regarding accessibility for patients residing in the Bridlington area. The facility, located at Scarborough Business Park in Eastfield, is expected to open this Autumn and aims to provide ultrasound, X-ray, MRI, CT, and cardiorespiratory services.
The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recently submitted retrospective planning applications for the 1,480 sqm building. The Trust asserted that the new CDC “will enable patients in Scarborough to easily access the facility”. The new hub is intended to “allow patients to access planned diagnostic care nearer to home without the need to attend acute hospital sites”, offering separate diagnostic scan facilities which should lead to shorter waiting times and a reduced risk of cancellation compared to urgent diagnostic services. The scheme is also intended to support access to healthcare in areas with high deprivation.
However, Dr Anthony Clarke, Chair of the Bridlington Health Forum, has voiced reservations about the chosen location, suggesting it creates difficulty for patients living further along the coast.
Dr Clarke stated:
“We have a concern about the positioning of the new community diagnostic centre which is being built on the outskirts of Scarborough.
That is a potential threat for Bridlington because when that opens there's likely to be less diagnostics undertaken at Bridlington Hospital and we're very much hoping that the trust and the ICB might gain what's called spoke status at Bridlington as a community diagnostic centre spoke
That's something we hope will happen in the future to enable diagnostics to increase locally.”
Dr Clarke also highlighted what he views as a missed opportunity regarding existing infrastructure. He suggested that an alternative location, either locally or closer to the town centre in Scarborough, would have been preferable to the Eastfield site.
“The new community diagnostic centre would have been better situated firstly in Bridlington, but if it's not going to be in Bridlington, then near the station in in Scarborough, but that's not been possible.
I do feel that the wider health service has missed an opportunity to use Bridlington Hospital as a centre for diagnostics within the community diagnostic centre program.
But there is some hope that we might become a spoke and we are greatful for the fact that the York Trust and the ICB are willing to take that forward on our behalf.”
The original 2023 announcement for the Scarborough CDC had outlined plans for a facility "in the town centre near Scarborough train station", though the current site is now located at the business park.
The Trust is aiming for the location to enable easy patient access, as well as providing capacity to bring outsourced activity back into the Trust.
North Yorkshire Council has not yet set a date for officially deciding on the retrospective planning application for the facility.
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