In 2016, I joined Ely residents in rallying against the planned closure of essential services at the Princess of Wales Hospital, writes South East Cambs MP Lucy Frazer.

Standing together, local campaigners secured more than 6,000 petition signatures and powerfully relayed their dissatisfaction to the county’s Clinical Commissioning Group, leading to the reversal of the plans.

Seven years later and the landscape is different. We are now on the front foot, able to expand the hospital’s provision for patients through the delivery of a new ‘Community Diagnostic Centre’ next Spring.

Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs) are a key part of the government’s 2022 ‘Elective Recovery Plan’, which sets out plans to alleviate pressure on hospitals after the pandemic.

These centres offer tests, checks, and scans at a critical time for patients, increasing early interventions, whilst at the same time, cutting waiting lists for other patients.

In total, the government has pledged to establish 160 nationally by March 2025 to the tune of £2.3 billion, and already, 108 have been set up, delivering four million patient diagnostics since July 2021.

The incoming £13 million CDC at the Princess of Wales Hospital – the site of which I had the pleasure of visiting earlier this month – will offer CT, MRI, Ultrasound, X-ray, and Mammography services, as well as a range of clinical assessment services.

The centre will also have a fully funded multi-storey car park of 271 spaces, which is forecast to be completed by Summer 2024.

According to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board, the two new Cambridgeshire CDCs – in Ely and Wisbech – will deliver a combined extra 120,000 checks, scans, test appointments in its first year, and a further 160,000 within 2024/2025, making a real difference to patient experiences in Cambridgeshire.

The growth of Ely’s healthcare capacity is something I have been pushing health ministers for over many years.

Our county has been, and will be, one of the fastest growing regions in the UK and I have made it clear that additional quality services must be introduced if we are to keep meeting patients’ health needs with excellence.

I am encouraged that my calls and those of others have been answered, first with the St Mary’s surgery expansion with support from East Cambridgeshire District Council and now with the new CDC; helped by the record government funding made available for the NHS this year.

Looking ahead, I continue to campaign for the capital funding required to further expand the Princess of Wales so that it can offer even more services, such as an expanded day surgery unit, urgent treatment centre, and primary care unit.

This is alongside another important objective – to add a new children’s hospital to Cambridge Biomedical Campus, after the cancer hospital was given the green light by the government earlier this year.