Bourne is a growing town of nearly 18,000 people, yet the nearest major health facilities are Peterborough City Hospital and in Grantham. For elderly residents, for parents with young children, and for people in work who cannot afford to lose hours to travel for a single appointment, that distance is not just an inconvenience. It is a barrier to early diagnosis, and early diagnosis saves lives.
By diagnosing diseases and illnesses earlier, we can prevent the need for treatment and more severe health issues later on. It’s one of the reasons I worked so hard to secure a Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) for Grantham in 2022. Since then, it has delivered over 100,000 diagnostic tests for local people, offering MRI and CT scans, blood tests, X-rays, and more.
The national CDC programme, launched by the previous Conservative Government with £2.3 billion of investment, is the largest in NHS diagnostic history and has now delivered nearly 15 million tests across 160 sites in England. In Lincolnshire alone, CDCs in Grantham, Lincoln, and Skegness are transforming how people access care.
Now I want the same for Bourne.
I have already been working with local councillors and medical professionals, written to the NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board, and raised this directly with Health Ministers in Parliament to make the case, but I need your support.