Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report entitled Diagnostics: Recovery and Renewal: Report of the Independent Review of Diagnostic Services for NHS England, published on 27 November 2020, what progress his Department has made in moving the urological outpatient workload to community diagnostic hubs.

The Department has provided £325m to support the National Health Service to roll out 40 Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) across England this year. The centres will start providing services over the next 6 months, with the aim to be fully operational by March 2022. Some centres have already been set up as Early Adopters, providing services to their local community. A further £2.3bn to support the roll out of a further 60 CDCs by 2024/2025 was announced at the 2021 Spending Review.

CDCs will offer some urology diagnostics, including urine testing and urodynamics, but the level of urology services provided will be decided locally based on population need. This will determine how much of the outpatient urology workload can move into CDCs.