New Birmingham health centre to ease hospital pressure with access for 37,000 patients

A new state-of-the-art health centre has opened in a shopping complex in Birmingham with the aim of taking services closer to where patients live.

South Birmingham Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC), based at Maypole Retail Park, is equipped with cutting-edge imaging and diagnostic technology and is open daily from 8am to 8pm.It offers NHS appointments to patients across Birmingham for a range of diagnostic tests, including CT, MRI, ultrasound, X-ray and respiratory tests, with further services due to be introduced as the site continues to mobilise.

Around 37,000 patients a year will be able to have diagnostic appointments at the CDC, which is being delivered through a partnership between NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and InHealth – an independent healthcare provider specialising in diagnostic services and community-based diagnostic centres.

CDCs are part of a national NHS programme to provide more tests and scans away from busy hospital sites, in convenient community locations closer to where people live, work and shop.They support earlier diagnosis, help reduce pressure on hospitals and improve access closer to home for patients for planned diagnostic appointments.

The opening of South Birmingham CDC comes as the NHS continues its focus on reducing waiting times for elective treatment (planned surgery), with the Government setting a national target for 65 per cent of patients to be seen within 18 weeks by March this year.

Latest NHS figures, released today, confirm the NHS has delivered this goal and in Birmingham and Solihull an average of 67.8 per cent of patients are being seen within 18 weeks.

Diagnostics are an important part of elective care recovery, as many patients need a test or scan before a diagnosis can be made or treatment can begin.Across Birmingham and Solihull, CDCs delivered over 93,500 diagnostic tests in the 2025/26 financial year, with activity continuing to increase.

Danielle Oum, Chair of NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board and NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board cluster, said: “The opening of South Birmingham Community Diagnostic Centre is an important step in giving patients more convenient access to the care they need closer to home

.“Diagnostics are a vital part of elective recovery. Many patients need a scan or test before they can receive a diagnosis or begin treatment, and we know that waiting for tests and results can be an anxious time for patients and their families.

“Increasing diagnostic capacity is therefore key to reducing waits, supporting earlier diagnosis, easing patient worries and reducing pressure on our hospitals. CDCs also support the direction set out in the national 10-Year Health Plan, shifting services from hospitals to communities, creating health services in our neighbourhoods, and increasing prevention of illness through earlier diagnosis.

“That is particularly important in south Birmingham, where we have some of the highest levels of deprivation in our city and where some people face additional barriers to accessing healthcare.

“By providing more tests in community settings, we can help reduce some of those barriers, give patients faster answers, and support better outcomes for our local populations.”

Minister of State for Health (Secondary Care), Karin Smyth, said: “This government has got the NHS on the road to recovery, with waiting lists falling to their lowest level in three years and a record 29 million diagnostic tests and scans carried out last year, but there’s still a lot more to do.

“The NHS should fit around people’s lives, not the other way around, and this brand-new, state-of-the-art centre for Birmingham is going to offer convenient tests, checks and scans without a trip to hospital.“Community Diagnostic Centres like this one are a vital part of how we’re rebuilding the NHS and getting people seen on time again.

“More of these will soon be opening across the country through our £237 million investment in new, expanded and enhanced centres just like this.”