LOCAL residents will have access to state-of-the-art diagnostic services from next autumn following the approval of a new £15 million facility.

Works have begun to turn a county council-owned building in Quayside in the centre of Gloucester into the South West’s first Community Diagnostic Centre, which will offer X-rays, MRI, CT, ultrasound, ECHO and DEXA scanning to patients across Gloucestershire.

One Gloucestershire Integrated Care System partners are working together to oversee the development of the centre, which is due to be completed next year.

The partners say the centre “will provide patients with the diagnostic tests they need in a convenient location, quickly, and in the fewest possible number of visits”.

Dr Andy Seymour, Chief Medical Officer at NHS Gloucestershire, said: “Our local teams have been working really hard to bring scans and tests back up to pre-pandemic levels, and this new investment will really help us to work through COVID-19 backlogs and speed up access to life-saving tests.”