A private health centre is set to open in Hornchurch as the government turns to the independent sector to cut NHS waiting times.

St George's Community Diagonistic Centre (CDC) in Suttons Lane, Hornchurch will be one of 13 opened nationally, it was announced today (August 4).

The Hornchurch centre is one of five NHS-run sites; with others in Skegness, Lincoln, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent.

This was welcomed by Julia Lopez, Conservative MP for Hornchurch and Upminster, who shared a letter from Will Quince, minister for health and secondary care, confirming the plans.

The other eight facilities will be operated by the private sector, although services will be free to patients.

CDCs countrywide will carry out 742,000 scans, checks and tests each year.

Figures released last month revealed NHS waiting lists stood at 7.47 million at the end of May, the highest number since records began in 2007.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said: "We must use every available resource to deliver life-saving checks to ease pressure on the NHS.

"By making use of the available capacity in the independent sector [...] we can offer patients a wider choice of venues to receive treatment and in doing so diagnose major illnesses quicker and start treatments sooner."

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Private centres will operate similarly to their NHS counterparts, the government said, but staff will be employed by private operators that also own the buildings.

South West sites - located in Redruth, Bristol, Torbay, Yeovil and Weston Super Mare - will be operated by diagnostics company InHealth.

Other private facilities will be in Southend, Northampton and south Birmingham and join four already operating in Brighton, north Solihull, Oxford and Salford.

The Government pledged to open 160 CDCs by 2030. There are currently 114 operating.

Other measures to use private sector capacity were outlined by the Elective Recovery Taskforce established in December.

These include using data from private health providers to identify where they could take on more NHS patients to help clear backlogs.

They will also look at using the private sector to train junior NHS staff.

Will Quince, minister for health and secondary care and taskforce chair, said: "We have already made significant progress in bringing down waiting lists, with 18-month waits virtually eliminated.

"These actions will bolster capacity across the country and give patients more choice over where and when they are treated."

But Labour said the Government is not making enough use of private capacity.

The party claims 331,000 patients waiting for NHS care could have been treated since January 2022.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: "The Conservatives are failing to make use of private sector capacity and patients are paying the price.

"No-one should be waiting in pain while hospital beds that could be used lie empty.

“The next Labour government will use spare capacity in the private sector to get patients seen faster."

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed to bring waiting lists down earlier this year, but last month said industrial action across the NHS is making the task "more challenging".

Junior doctors are preparing for another four-day strike on August 11 in their row with the Government over pay, with consultants set to walk out for 48 hours on August 24.