Hospital officially opens Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) to transform care for the community
Health / Sun 10th May 2026 at 08:29am
THE Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) officially opened its Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) at St Margaret’s Hospital, Epping, today (Friday 8 May).
The St Margaret’s CDC will transform care for the community it serves, supporting quicker and more local access to diagnostic tests and treatment close to patients’ homes.
PAHT was proud to welcome Cllr Janet Whitehouse, Mayor of Epping, to officially cut the ribbon. She was joined by partners including MPs, councillors, GPs, NHS England representatives, the project team and wider stakeholders to celebrate this milestone with tours of the centre.
There has been some clinical activity through the centre including cardiology, respiratory and imaging diagnostics (CT, MRI and ultrasound) since 16 March when PAHT welcomed its first patient to the centre.
There is new, modern, high-quality equipment and extended opening times at the St Margaret’s CDC, with additional capacity being provided for MRI scans, X-rays and non-obstetric (non-pregnancy) ultrasounds, including:
Two additional computerised tomography (CT) scanners;
Extended hours for X-rays;
New ultrasound equipment;
New cardiology equipment;
New respiratory equipment;
New MRI scanner; and
More phlebotomists – increasing the number of blood tests that can be carried out
Additionally, as part of the CDC programme, the services provided at Herts and Essex Hospital, Bishop’s Stortford, include extended hours with additional capacity for non-obstetric (non-pregnancy) ultrasounds, X-ray and audiology.
CDC services at both St Margaret’s Hospital and Herts and Essex Hospital are available to patients by appointment, not on a walk-in basis.
New clinical pathways
There will be streamlined clinical care – known as ‘pathways’ – available for patients to access services for conditions in the future including:
Breathlessness
Children and young people’s asthma
Unscheduled bleeding on hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
Liver health checks (surveillance)
Rapid access care for chest pain
Palpitations
Sleep studies
Trans-nasal (via nose) endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract
Urology – focused on prostate diagnostics
Construction work is continuing on an extension to the CDC, due to be completed in early 2027. This further development of the site will accommodate the fibroscanner to check for liver inflammation, an additional ultrasound, X-ray and space for trans-nasal endoscopy.
Dr Monica Bose, Divisional Director of Planned Pathways and Consultant Gastroenterologist at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT), said: “I am delighted to see the St Margaret’s CDC officially open.
“Since we welcomed our first patient on 16 March, we have already seen the significant impact this centre has for our patients, with quicker and more local access to diagnostic tests and treatment close to their homes.
“I am incredibly excited to develop this further as we progress with the extension to the CDC and our new pathways for streamlined clinical care – this will make such a difference to the care we provide to our patients.”
David Forman
2026-05-10 10:07:08
The title of the article should read 'CDC diagnostic centre opens a Year Late'. Yet we do not get an apology or an explanation. The arrogance of these senior NHS managers is astounding.
David Forman
2026-05-10 10:13:49
The senior manager required to give the apology and explanation is Michael Meredith. We're waiting.
Seamus
2026-05-10 15:13:21
My father was recently in a dementia ward at Epping. During his time there he had two falls which caused bangs to the back of his head, had a fall that caused a fractured septum, a fall that led to a fractured foot and was twice attacked by another patient. Most of these injuries required a trip from Epping to Harlow pah for an mri/ct/xray which scared him, as many old folk do not want to go there as they view the care is so poor that the elderly think pah is where old people go to die. Anyway on some of those occasions it required an Xray/mri/ct scan. On his last visit it was a fall and bleeding from the back of the head, this was mid afternoon. It took till nearly 5 pm to get an ambulance to take him to pah and he was there till 9pm before they said he was okay to go. However there were no ambulances to go the 10 minute journey back to Epping dementia unit so he was made to sleep on a trolley in the corridors. We tried to take him back ourselves but they refused to allow him to go unless by ambulance. At 09:45 the next day they finally get an ambulance to take him back to Epping. To say he has been badly treated by Epping and Harlow hospitals would be a gross understatement. My reason for mentioning this was a sentence in the article "CDC services at both St Margaret’s Hospital and Herts and Essex Hospital are available to patients by appointment, not on a walk-in basis." This would seem to suggest that despite having dementia wards at Epping hospital, if a dementia patient requires an Xray, ct or mri, they will still be required to go through the trauma of going to pah as the new diagnostic centres, are by appointment only, despite being only 10 seconds away and can be seen from the dementia wards. I would love it if the unit manager could clarify the situation please. Our elderly deserve better than they have been getting from the nhs.
David Forman
2026-05-10 15:20:13
Dear Seamus, I wish I could wave a wand to help your father receive the dignified care he deserves.
Seamus
2026-05-11 16:59:27
Thank you David, your kind words are greatly appreciated.
Stephen Archer
2026-05-11 17:13:02
I was seen quickly and treated very well in a first class ultrasound suite.....a week before it was officially opened apparently.
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