The effect of community diagnostic centres on volume and waiting time for diagnostic procedures in the UK

Peter Sivey; Jinglin Wen

doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2024.105101

The effect of community diagnostic centres on volume and waiting time for diagnostic procedures in the UK

Peter Sivey, Jinglin Wen

Centre for Health Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Many health care systems are looking to implement policies to improve productivity and accessibility of health care. In this paper we use data from the English National Health Service to evaluate the effect of introducing new "Community Diagnostic Centres" in 2021 which aim to increase volume, reduce waiting times, and increase accessibility to diagnostic procedures. Our results show an increase in volume of diagnostic procedures associated with the introduction of CDCs at local NHS organisations. We find some evidence the increase is driven by an increase in MRI scans in particular, and this result is larger for CDCs located in more deprived local areas. We find no effect on waiting times which may indicate some demand response to increased availability of tests.

Original language	English
Article number	105101
Number of pages	7
Journal	Health Policy
Volume	147
Early online date	29 Jun 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2024.105101 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2024.105101
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2024

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The effect of community diagnostic centres on volume and waiting time for diagnostic procedures in the UK
© 2024 The Author(s)
Final published version, 1.84 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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