Portsmouth Community Diagnostic Centre gives patients faster access to tests to support earlier diagnosis
‘It is fabulous because it is available right in the heart of the community’
Patients in Portsmouth are benefitting from a new diagnostic centre which has opened in the “heart of the community”.
It is all designed to bring services closer to people’s homes and in a setting which could be considered as less stressful than a hospital. The new centre, which opened its doors earlier this month, also helps to provide earlier diagnosis for local people.
Carla Langton, nurse director for clinical delivery and family services, said: “It is fabulous because it is available right in the heart of the community and we have PHU services available such as blood taking, cardiology, neurophysiology, and breast screening services. It has meant we have been able to take some of the activity away from the acute hospital site in Portsmouth.
“There is really good free parking here with bus and train routes also nearby. We have seen about 140 patients a day since we opened. I talked to some of the patients and we have had some really positive feedback so far.”
The CDC is a partnership between Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) and Alliance Medical (AML).
Annabel Hyslop is the Portsmouth Community Diagnostic Centre Alliance Medical unit manager. She took over the project in March this year helping to turn what was a building site into a functioning and modern CDC.
The building was already owned by the NHS with mammography and sleep study services operating from the site. Now it has become a hub providing faster access to tests to aid earlier diagnosis and treatment.
Annabel said: “This building has been used for many purposes in its life and today we see it fully functioning as a community diagnostics centre with Alliance Medical providing MRI, CT, ultrasound and X-ray scanning for PHU.
“It has been great working with the Trust on this project. We have combined our workforces so that patients can have multiple tests on one day, they perhaps have blood tests done and then a CT scan. It takes patients away from our major hospitals in Portsmouth and frees them up for more acute services.”
Having been open for a couple of weeks, the response from patients has already been positive with the ease of access being highlighted as a benefit compared to having to locate the right departments in a large hospital.
Annabel said: “Our patients have really enjoyed coming into our new centre, they like the relaxing feeling of our units and we have lots of friendly staff helping to show them where they need to go. I think they have been wowed by how the building looks and that they can have all these services with a small distance of each other.”
Steve Mathieu, Medical Director at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, said: “This new Community Diagnostic Centre is about improving the experience and outcomes for our patients. By providing faster access to a wide range of diagnostic tests in a community location, we can help people get answers sooner and support earlier intervention where it matters most.
“Our partnership with Alliance Medical allows us to expand diagnostic capacity while maintaining strong clinical governance and ensuring services are aligned with local needs and NHS priorities. It also helps protect capacity within our acute hospital sites, allowing them to focus on the most complex care.”
Matt Freeman, Regional Director at Alliance Medical, said: "A successful CDC requires strong clinical leadership, robust governance, and well-designed patient pathways that genuinely improve access to diagnostics. In Portsmouth, we are working closely with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, combining our national experience in delivering CDCs with high-quality imaging technology to support earlier diagnosis, improve patient outcomes, and align with local NHS priorities."
See inside the Portsmouth Community Diagnostic Centre in the pictures below: