Ground was broken at St Mary’s Hospital earlier today (Wednesday) as work to extend the Community Diagnostic Centre began.
Located next to the North Hospital entrance, the Community Diagnostic Centre (CDS) was unveiled back in November 2024 after a 15-month building project – as previously reported by Island Echo.
The purpose-built centre has seen the introduction of several new pathways and services to benefit our Island community including DEXA bone density scanning, a Children and Young People’s (CYP) Asthma pathway, HRT bleeding and Community Cardiology pathways.
Now, at the start of 2026, ground has been broken as work to extend the CDS gets underway. It was originally hoped that the extension could’ve been built when the original build was undertaken but issues securing funding postponed that until now.
At present, patients with suspected breast cancer or breast abnormalities must travel between the South and North hospitals for different stages of their diagnostic appointments. The new extension will also boost the provision of CT scans at St Mary’s with a new CT scanner to be unveiled. Both upgrades have been described as a ‘major expansion’.
Speaking to the media earlier today, Joe Smyth, IWT Chief Officer, said:
“The whole idea of the diagnostic centre was to centralise everything to allow us to provide faster services and more dignity and we have achieved that in a large part.
“When we built this unit, we always anticipated that we would put a breast symptomatic screening unit onto the side of the building but we couldn’t do that then. What we did do was set everything up so that when we could secure the funds, we could just plug in.
Article continues below this advertisement “We want to deliver more ‘one-stop’ services for patients. When they are here we can line up their diagnostics, their appointments and do all of that in one go so that you can get your results, go see a consultant and then go away with a treatment plan.”
Once the works are complete later this year, the breast imaging service will be fully based in a single hospital location. The exact timeline for the completion has not been confirmed, but the relocation is expected to be complete by the end of autumn 2026.
As was the case before, Mountjoy have been awarded the building contract.
What does the new NHS place on the High Street in Newport offer? Is it open for business? I hardly ever see anyone in there when I walk past daily. Apart from the staff outside or in the cafe you’d think it was closed. Maybe it’s admin only office