COVENTRY UNIVERSITY is set to help the NHS tackle health inequality in the city by becoming the UK’s first higher education institute co-located in a community diagnostic centre (CDS).
An NHS community diagnostic centre is where patients are sent in order to receive scans, checks and tests in a bid to relieve traditional hospitals from the pressure of delivering these types of appointments.
The plan is to deliver teaching, clinical placements, and research at the new health centre alongside University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust.
The centre is expected to see around 90,000 patients a year and provide up to 75,000 additional patient tests a year by 2026 and will target heart and lung problems and aim on expanding the capacity for diagnosing cancer patients.
Coventry has a high rate of premature mortality in those areas.
The centre will be located in the Paybody Building, Stoney Stanton Road and will give two organisations the chance to increase its capacity to educate the workforce, when opened in early 2025.
Professor John Latham CBE, vice-chancellor of Coventry University Group, said: “This collaboration will also give our healthcare students access to hands on NHS learning experiences and placement opportunities in the city centre, enhance our participation in clinical research and patient trials, and support UHCW in growing and retaining their work force.”
The co-location will also support Coventry University’s expansion in research and enterprise concerning health technology, translational medicine, diagnostics, and digital health.
These efforts will be concentrated within the research centres specialising in Health and Life Sciences, Healthcare and Communities, Intelligent Healthcare, and Physical Activity, Sports, and Exercise Science.
Professor Andy Hardy, chief executive at UHCW NHS Trust, said: “The centre will help to achieve earlier diagnoses for patients through easier, faster and more direct access to the full range of diagnostic tests needed to understand patients’ symptoms.
“The services offered will also be separate to urgent diagnostic scan facilities, which means shorter waiting times and a reduced risk of cancellation.”
