Sajid Javid told Parliament on 8 February that scores of “new community diagnostic centres” had “already opened across England in convenient places such as shopping malls and car parks,” where they would be a “major” part of action to clear NHS waiting lists and improve access to cancer screening.
However, openDemocracy has revealed that neither NHS England nor the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) could say where these 69 centres are, or provide evidence to substantiate the health secretary’s claim. openDemocracy was eventually directed to a speculative list, published in October, of 57 sites that were due to open this year – but few of these actually appear to be in operation or offering anything significantly new as of 2022.
Of the 17 sites that openDemocracy could confirm had been set up, most appeared to have extensive private involvement. At least one is the joint project of a private equity firm whose parent company has a Conservative Party donor on its board of directors.
Full story in openDemocracy, 21 March 2022