Significant Investment Revealed for New NHS Diagnostic Centres

Plans for a new Diagnostic Centre  at the James Paget University Hospital (JPUH) in Great Yarmouth have been set in motion following a significant investment from the Department of Health and Social Care.

Commissioned by The NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care System and designed by LSI Architects, the new centre will provide the hospital with the capacity to diagnose disease quicker, particularly cancer, and in turn reduce NHS waiting lists which have only grown since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The James Paget Hospital is one of Norfolk’s three acute hospital sites to benefit from a new diagnostic centre, the other two being Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) and Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Kings Lynn. The £85.9M invested makes this the largest capital investment from the Department of Health and Social Care that the region has seen for over 20 years.

LSI is also responsible for the design of the new diagnostic centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital site.

Each centre is set to be equipped with state-of-the-art imaging equipment, including MRI and CT scanners, x-rays and ultrasound machines. Once open the centres will be set to deliver more than 281,000 tests, scans, and checks to patients in Norfolk.

Visualisation of the new Diagnostic Centre at the JPUH

The functional content of both centres is similar, and so each of the centres will be two storey buildings with the ground floor of each dedicated to scanning equipment and associated facilities. The first floor of each is dedicated to the extensive mechanical requirements of a Diagnostic Centre.

Both buildings are to be clad in a buff brick and feature a covered entrance area and brick colonnade over two-stories, as well as a recessed brick reveal detail. The massing steps back at the top story which accommodates the smaller plantroom area which makes the Diagnostic Centre building primarily single storey in appearance, so as to be in keeping with the context of the two hospital sites.

Visualisation of the new Diagnostic Centre at the QEH

Both buildings have been designed to achieve Net Zero Carbon in operation and BREEAM Excellent, supporting the local and national estates strategies aspirations of becoming net zero carbon.

The addition of the new centres throughout Norfolk are set to have a positive impact on cancer outcomes, as well as improved patient experience through earlier treatment.