Patient-focused Community Diagnostic Centre Opens in Hereford, Boosting Local NHS Capacity
Construction has completed on the Wye Valley Community Diagnostic and Treatment Centre in Hereford, a £18 million facility designed with a patient-focused approach to provide a reassuring environment for imaging and diagnostic testing.
Designed by Architype and Medical Architecture for Wye Valley NHS Trust, and constructed by Speller Metcalfe via the NHS ProCure23 (P23) framework, the project is part of a national initiative to boost NHS diagnostic capacity by providing CDCs in local communities close to people’s homes, making services more convenient and accessible. The P23 framework enabled early engagement of the full project team, supporting a highly collaborative approach throughout design and construction.
The building was officially opened by the Government’s Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock, who cut the ribbon alongside the Trust’s clinical operation lead.
Minister Kinnock said: “By investing in new centres closer to where people live and work, patients can get tests and scans when it works for them. With access right on the doorstep, seven days a week and 12 hours a day, this centre will benefit tens of thousands of patients – without forcing anyone to miss the school run or a work shift.”
Located off Holmer Road and adjacent to a well-connected retail park, the centre is open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, providing residents with access to state-of-the-art diagnostic tests including X-ray, CT, MRI, and ultrasound. This enables routine diagnostics to take place away from Hereford County Hospital in an environment that feels more welcoming and less clinical, while relieving capacity pressure and reducing traffic at the hospital site.
Community diagnostic centres such as this play a vital role in helping to identify and treat illnesses more quickly and closer to home, supporting speedier diagnosis and potentially life-saving care.
Patient-focused Design
The building’s internal spaces have been designed to meet the technical and safety requirements of a modern diagnostic facility while enhancing the patient experience. The double-height entrance and waiting foyer welcomes visitors into a central space, providing intuitive navigation throughout the building.
A bespoke interior design and wayfinding strategy uses distinctive colours and graphic iconography to identify different space types, improving accessibility for younger visitors, visually impaired patients, and those who do not speak English as a first language.
Clinical areas vary from highly-tailored specialist facilities to flexible spaces that can accommodate a wide range of generic clinical activities efficiently. Dedicated changing facilities are located adjacent to imaging rooms for convenience and privacy, while consultation spaces on the first floor, alongside staff welfare facilities, benefit from generous natural daylight and views to promote wellbeing.
The building has also been designed for future reconfiguration or expansion to allow complimentary services to be added as needed.
Collaboration and Project Team
Mark Nugent, Associate Director at Medical Architecture, said: “This project’s success reflects the hard work and collaborative efforts of our NHS client, the contractor, and the whole design team, who were determined to create a sustainable healthcare facility which will reduce running costs, provide a great place for staff to work, and significantly improve the patient experience.”
Paul Neep, Associate at Architype, added: “It has been a pleasure to design and help deliver this important community facility for Wye Valley Trust. By working closely with the specialist healthcare expertise of Medical Architecture, we were able to combine medical excellence with sustainable, high-quality design. We are proud to see this project successfully completed and now serving our community.”
Adrian Speller, Managing Director at Speller Metcalfe, said: “We are thrilled to see the Hereford Diagnostic Centre completed and ready to serve the local community, which is already making a difference to service delivery on the ground. Our team has enjoyed working closely with the Trust to deliver a facility that will make a real difference for patients in Herefordshire.”
Sustainability
The building design is underpinned by Passivhaus principles to reduce energy demand, lower operational costs, and provide a comfortable internal environment. This includes a fabric-first approach with thermally efficient walls, floors, and roof, robust detailing, and airtight construction.
The design aligns with the NHS Net Zero Carbon Building Standard and achieved a BREEAM Excellent score of 74.1%. Embodied carbon has been minimised through a prefabricated timber frame combined with precast concrete floor plates, while façade orientation and glazing strategy optimise natural daylight and views, controlling overheating, glare, and heat gain.
Impact and Future Benefits
Expected to deliver more than 30,000 tests annually, the Wye Valley Community Diagnostic and Treatment Centre represents a significant step forward in providing faster, more accessible care for local communities while supporting the continued recovery of NHS services.
Dr Jess Sokolov, Regional Medical Director of NHS England in the Midlands, said: “A key part of the national Elective Reform Plan is to provide local people with more convenient access to tests and scans away from hospital. Within a year of the plan’s launch, we have established a network of these centres across the Midlands while reducing the backlog for surgery in our region by more than six per cent.”
