North Devon secures one of just four new NHS centres in major health rollout

Bideford is to get one of just four new diagnostic centres in the country, while another in Devon will be expanded.

The four new community diagnostic centres (CDC) were announced today (Monday, April 13) by health secretary Wes Streeting, while Exeter’s Nightingale hospital will be expanded to increase the range and volume of tests it can carry out.

The news came as part of a major £237million plan by the government in its bid to expand its CDC footprint. A total of four new CDCs were announced, alongside 17 being expanded and 15 getting new equipment.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Streeting said the Bideford CDC, potentially open early next year at Bideford Community Hospital on Abbotsham Road, would be funded by £6m in government cash and include services such as ultrasound, X-ray, cardiology and audiology.

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He said: “This is a really good example of the investment and modernisation that Labour is putting into the NHS, which is helping us to cut waiting lists, improve ambulance response times and improve people’s access to general practice.”

Exeter’s NHS Nightingale hospital on the city’s Sowton Industrial Estate hosts the city’s CDC and this will be expanded as part of the plans, which also included promises of an expanded CDC in Plymouth.

Around £23m has been spent on the CDC project in Plymouth, which is due to be completed this summer. Located at Colin Campbell Court in the city’s West End, it was already slated to be able to carry out over 90,000 tests every year before this week’s announcement of its expansion.

Planning permission for a second building behind the nearly finished one had already been submitted.

Above: The Exeter Nightingale Hospital.

Speaking about the CDC expansions and improvements in his announcement, Mr Streeting said the health service needed to support people closer to home.

He said: “We need the NHS to be a neighbourhood health service as much as a national one, and that’s particularly true across the South West.

“If you live in Exeter or Plymouth, you are better served, but there are lots of people in smaller towns and villages for whom hospitals are not as close by.

“That’s why we have got to make sure we are improving access to services right across the country.”

He added that Exeter MP Steve Race and the Exeter City Council leader Councillor Phil Bialyk (Labour, Exwick) had “fought hard” for the investment, and that while Bideford’s CDC would technically be in the Torridge and Tavistock constituency of Conservative MP Geoffrey Cox, his Liberal Democrat neighbour in North Devon, Ian Roome, had also been active.

“I can barely walk through a corridor in the House of Commons without Ian jumping out to collar me about services in his constituency,” Mr Streeting added.

“You’ve got a really good bunch of hard-working local MPs lobbying hard for investment and a Labour government delivering it.”

Above: How Colin Campbell Court in Plymouth will look with the two community diagnostic centres. Credit: University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust

There are 170 CDCs across England at present, and the centres are seen as vital to helping the health service identify illnesses earlier, leading to more timely treatment, better outcomes for patients and reduced pressure on emergency NHS services.

NHS England carried out a record number of key diagnostic tests in 2025 – more than 29 million – and has carried out an additional 3.5 million tests in the first 18 months of this government compared to the 18 months prior to July 2024.

Mr Streeting said the new centres, including Bideford, would be kitted out with ‘state-of-the-art’ equipment, while those in line for physical expansions – which include Exeter and Plymouth – will get new rooms and cutting-edge scanning and diagnostic equipment, such as MRI, CT and ultrasound scanners.

The government said this would “significantly increase the range and volume of tests each centre can offer.”

They are located in ‘convenient community settings’ – from high streets, shopping centres and retail parks to leisure centres – and more than 100 are open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, so patients can access tests closer to where they live, without needing to travel to hospital.

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