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Corby’s new £11.7mCommunity Diagnostic Centre (CDC) has opened for business.

The centre saw its first echocardiography patients on June 18 and CT and MRI scans started from June 23.

It is open seven days a week from 8am-8pm and people will be referred to it for tests by their GP or by hospital consultants. 

It is accessed from Willowbrook Road and is adjacent to – but with a separate entrance slip road from – the Willowbrook Health complex, which is accessed off Cottingham Road.

Director of Strategy for the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group, Polly Grimmett, said: “The opening of Corby Community Diagnostic Centre is an important development for local people offering a variety of tests away from our busy main hospital site.

“It will provide testing in the community, in as few visits as possible, enabling an accurate and fast diagnosis on a range of a clinical pathways

“It will support GPs and hospital staff in diagnosing many major health conditions such as cancer, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), stroke and diabetes, at an earlier point.

“In turn this will help us help us to treat and better manage these conditions and reduce the risk of emergency attendances in hospital.

“It will also help us to reduce the stress and uncertainty patients face while waiting for the more specialised diagnostic tests like CT and MRI to determine what is wrong with them.”

The Corby site is run by the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire in partnership with an independent sector supplier, Alliance Medical, who are owning and operating in situ MRI and CT scans at the CDC.

Each year Corby CDC is set to deliver more than 93,000 tests to include more than:

• 7,700 MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans which use powerful magnets and radio waves to create detailed images of the inside of the body. It's a painless procedure often used to diagnose or monitor a wide range of conditions and injuries
• 11,000 CT (computed tomography) scans which uses X-rays and a computer to create detailed cross-sectional images of the inside of the body. These images help doctors diagnose and monitor various health conditions, including broken bones, strokes, cancers, digestive problems, and kidney problems. 
• 13,300 Ultrasound Scans – These use high-frequency sound waves to create images of the inside of the body used to diagnose a variety of conditions
• 4,500 echocardiography tests – tests that use ultrasound waves to investigate the action of the heart.

 It will also deliver a variety of other respiratory, heart and blood tests. These will include a dementia pathway designed to speed up diagnosis and awareness for patients with suspected dementia using MRI or CT diagnostic tests.

Other pathways being explored currently include diagnostic tests for breathlessness, asthma in children and young people, post-menopausal bleeding, and faecal sample testing for bowel cancer.

The NHS standard for diagnostic waiting times is six weeks but in 2023 – before the CDC programmes began - waiting times for routine on-urgent specialist tests such as MRI and CT in Northamptonshire were way over that.

In April 2023 waits for MRI were 12 weeks (87.4 days) now down to 4 weeks (32.7 days) in April 2025 – a reduction of nearly eight weeks.

In April 2023 waits for CT were six weeks (43 days) now down to just under four weeks (27 day) in April 2025 - a reduction of 2 weeks

This has been supported by mobile units used to deliver CT and MRI scans and other tests on the Willowbrook Health Centre site over the last two years. The opening of Corby CDC will continue to stabilise and reduce waiting times.

The Corby CDC plan was first announced in early 2023 with public engagement events held in October of that year as the scheme went through council planning approvals. Work started on the Corby site in June 2024 and was completed last month.

It has been funded centrally as part of national initiatives to deliver more Community Diagnostic Centres across the country.

Other local partners involved with the development have included GPs, Northamptonshire NHS Integrated Care Board, local authorities, and Chief Executives from North Northamptonshire Carers and Connected Together.  Full support was also given by NHS England Cancer Alliance.