A NEW £15million NHS diagnostic centre will bring 50 new jobs to west Cumbria upon its opening in Workington, and aims to address health disparities in the area.

The £15million community diagnostic centre (CDC), offering MRI, CT and ultrasound scanning for patients across north Cumbria, was approved by NHS England with the hope of opening to patients in spring 2024.

The centre will be located next to Allerdale Borough Council’s Innovation Hub, which is also under development in Central Way, Workington.

At an overview and scrutiny committe meeting of Allerdale Borough Council last Friday, March 3, Susan Halsall from the North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust announced  that the new diagnostic centre would create 50 new jobs for healthcare workers within the trust - who would all be needed to run the building.

She said: “You can’t run a facility without the staff... they are nurses, consultants, administration staff.”

READ MORE: New £15 million Community Diagnostic Centre set for Workington

Cumbria is ranked 13th in the UK for new cancer cases being diagnosed. The new centre aims to address the need to make cancer screening more visible to the general public as a community base, with the centre being near to the town centre allowing a more accessible provision.

She said: “The whole drive behind this is to diagnose cancers at stage one and two to give longevity to life - it’s a well-known fact about health disparities across Allerdale, Copeland, Eden, you can see the life differences of men and women across the different wards.

“I can promise you now there is so much demand. The capacity that is freed up will allow us to improve flow within the hospital because we have got emergency patients coming in, we’ve got outpatients mixed up in the facilities in Carlisle.

READ MORE: Allerdale Borough Council meet in Cockermouth for final time

“We’ve got patients sitting in beds waiting for the scans, just because there isn’t the capacity to get patients out. I guess everyone will have a relative who is sitting in hospital just waiting for a scan.”

Ms Halsall also revealed that the trust had looked at putting the new facility into the former Debenhams building within the town centre, however it was not viable due to the weight of some of the scanning machines and the ‘risk was too high and too costly’ to go into that space.

The building is expected to have a lifespan of 60 years and has been designed so that the centre can be expanded should it need.

Three councillors called the meeting to raise the need for more transparency in the decision-making process over the sale of the land to the NHS.

Councillors from all parties on the commitee spoke of their strong support for the new facility.

Those who had called the meeting welcomed the transparency that had now taken place, and further welcomed the facility to Workington.

The committee agreed to the callers proposal that the executive consider a restrictive covenant at the site to allow the space to only be used for health purposes.