Crown Street Enhancements Programme

Patients across Liverpool are benefiting from earlier diagnostic tests closer to home thanks to investment in a new testing centre at Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Thanks to government funding, Liverpool Women’s are one of the first 40 new Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC’s) across the country.

The centres will help achieve:

• earlier diagnoses for patients through easier, faster, and more direct access to the full range of diagnostic tests needed to understand patients’ symptoms.
• a reduction in hospital visits which will help to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission; and
• a contribution to the NHS’ net zero ambitions by providing multiple tests at one visit, reducing the number of patient journeys and helping to cut carbon emissions and air pollution. 

The new CDC is part of the Crown Street Enhancements Programme at Liverpool Women’s and is already offering a number of different services to patients including CT scans and Respiratory testing. The implementation of these services means that patients are benefiting from reduced waiting times and treatment closer to home, with September marking our three thousandth CT scan.

As we move forward with our plans to expand the CDC we will see permanent solutions for CT and MRI scanning being launched in early 2023. 

• The development of the Community Diagnostic Centre in partnership with Liverpool University Hospitals (LUHFT), Liverpool Heart and Chest (LHCH) and Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (CCC) began in March 2022
• LWH took delivery of a Mobile CT scanner in February 2022 and its first patient was seen on in March 2022. December has seen over 5000 patients through the CT scanner
• Mobile MRI scanner is now on site and the first patients were seen 8^th November 2022
• Permanent CT and MRI imaging are expected to be in place by early 2023. 
• The naming of the CDC has been confirmed as Crown Street Community Diagnostic Centre

Early October 2022 it was announced that the various Community Diagnostic Centers across the country have now delivered over 2 million vital checks, helping to address the backlogs from the last two years.  You can read the full GOV.UK news article on this national milestone here: click here.

Not only will the new CDC enable thousands of additional scans to be undertaken every year for patients in the region, but it will also help to reduce risk for some of our most seriously ill patients, who at the moment are transferred across the city when they need urgent scans.  

This is great news for the Trust and for partner organisations such as Liverpool University Hospitals (LUHFT), Liverpool Heart and Chest (LHCH) and Clatterbridge Cancer Centre (CCC) who are already utilising the CDC for their own patients.

Not only will the new CDC enable thousands of additional scans to be undertaken every year for patients in the region, it will also help to reduce risk for some of our most seriously ill patients, who at the moment are transferred across the city when they need urgent scans.  This development started as part of the Crown Street Enhancements Programme but has now been significantly expanded. The CDC at Liverpool Women’s is one of five in Cheshire and Merseyside. To view image of the  scanner click here.

To find out more about the Government’s 40 Community Diagnostic Centres CLICK HERE.

In 2020, the Trust began piloting robotic assisted surgery within its Gynaecology service. The pilot aimed to bring access to the latest technology to the women of Liverpool, reducing risk, length of hospital stay and improving outcomes, as well as attracting the best clinicians to work in our service. The pilot was a resounding success and welcomed by our patients, and earlier this year the Trust purchased the theatre robot, securing the long-term future of the service. Patients have really welcomed this service with positive feedback since the Trust began delivering it.

We have relocated our Fetal Medicine Unit (FMU) from the ground floor to the 2nd floor of the hospital and the brand unit opened on 6^th November 2021. This has increased capacity and helps us make big improvements to our patient pathway

By relocating our Fetal Medicine Unit, this has enabled us to create space on the ground floor for a new CT imaging and Colposcopy suite.

We are aiming to bring CT imaging to Crown street early in 2022-23. This development will reduce risk for some of our most seriously ill patients, who at the moment are transferred across the city when they need urgent scans, often separating mums and babies. By bringing CT imaging to Liverpool Women’s, we will be able to get women the urgent care they need at the right time, without delay. We will also be able to help our partners across the system recover from the impacts of COVID-19, by providing more CT capacity and helping to reduce waiting times.

We took delivery of a Mobile CT Scanner located near the front of the hospital  Image of the scanner can be seen click here.

This is great news for the Trust and for partner organisations such as Liverpool University Hospitals (LUHFT) and Liverpool Heart and Chest (LHCH) as this Mobile CT will increase overall CT capacity for LWH and other patients in the area.

Alongside our planned CT suite, We have relocated our new colposcopy unit which opened on 9th November, to make sure our facilities meet the appropriate standards as well as improving the experience of the patients in our care.  

We currently do not have a blood bank on our hospital site and this can cause delays for women receiving vital blood and transfusion care. To address this we are working with partners in the NHS with the aim of providing a blood bank and transfusion services on our site, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the near future. Discussions are progressing positively and we hope to have further updates on these plans over the coming months.