London diagnostic hubs extend hours, lift test volumes across city

London’s community diagnostic programme stepped up capacity this year—expanding opening times, adding sites and lifting throughput—while urgent community response teams in the south-west of the capital sharpened two-hour performance, indicating faster access upstream of elective and cancer pathways from April to October 2025.

Across the capital, 14 Community Diagnostic Centres are in place and half now operate 12 hours a day, seven days a week; nearly two million tests have been delivered in London over four years, with new hubs scheduled at Mile End, New Addington and Queen Mary’s Sidcup by year-end.

Local milestones show uneven but material gains: Finchley Memorial Hospital’s centre in Barnet reports more than 450,000 scans and checks to date, illustrating how single hubs can absorb demand that would otherwise queue in acute settings.

National diagnostic waits still bite—24.0% of people referred for one of the 15 key tests waited six weeks or more at the end of August 2025—so London’s extended hours and additional sites function less as surplus capacity and more as catch-up infrastructure.

As a secondary lens on access, South West London’s Urgent Community Response saw 87% of contacts met within two hours in April (1,745 referrals), suggesting quicker at-home assessment that can prevent avoidable conveyance.

Numbers in brief: 14 centres in London (half open 12/7), ~2,000,000 London tests since programme launch, one Barnet site >450,000 tests, England-wide 24.0% waiting 6+ weeks in August 2025, and South West London UCR at 87% within two hours on 1,745 April referrals.

Sources, window, method: NHS England London regional updates on Community Diagnostic Centres, national Diagnostics Waiting Times and Activity (to August 2025), and South West London ICB operational data (April 2025), triangulated and compared against official statistical series.

31 July 2025 09:36 By London Health News Desk