Walton Hospital in Chesterfield has completed the second phase of its Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) development, following a £7.5m investment from NHS England to expand diagnostic capacity at the site.
The latest expansion brings total investment in the centre to £12.7m, building on the £5.2m first phase, which opened in September 2025. The second phase has added a permanent extension to the CDC, bringing CT and MRI scanning into the main building instead of using mobile scanner units alongside the centre.
The extension also introduces DEXA scanning and a dedicated children’s audiology service.
Actiform, which was the main construction partner for the original CDC, remained on site to deliver the Phase 2 extension alongside the wider project team.
Five modular building blocks were fabricated off site and delivered to Walton Hospital to form the shell of the extension. The units were installed while the existing hospital remained operational, with the project team working to minimise disruption to patients and staff.
The expansion follows Walton Hospital’s inclusion in the wider £237m CDC investment programme, with the first patients using the new facilities in August 2026.
The project is being delivered through a partnership between Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Walton Hospital.
New scanning technologies added to extension
The new CT facility includes a Revolution Vibe scanner, which provides advanced cardiac CT capabilities and can image the full heart in 0.23 seconds.
The technology is designed to support cardiac imaging with less, and in some cases no, pre-scan medication to control patients’ heart rates. The new permanent MRI and CT scanners replace the temporary mobile facilities previously used at the site.
Since the original CDC opened in September 2025, the Walton site has supported community-based diagnostic pathways including liver screening, breathlessness services, children’s asthma pathways and urology one-stop clinics.
The centre has also enabled patients to undergo multiple investigations during a single visit.
“This is a fantastic development for patients who can now access a wider range of sophisticated diagnostic tests at Walton Hospital,” said Jim Austin, chief executive of Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust.
The Walton CDC forms part of a wider network of Community Diagnostic Centres across Derbyshire, including the facility at Whitworth Hospital in Matlock and the CDC at Ilkeston Community Hospital.
