The £17.8m state-of-the-art centre will provide a range of specialist diagnostic and outpatient services to the population of Bridgwater and the surrounding areas.

David Craig, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust's programme director for the project, said: ‘This development is fantastic news for people in Bridgwater and will improve access to vital healthcare scans, as well as help us to reduce our waiting times.

‘The new centre supports one of the three shifts of the NHS 10-Year Plan, which involves transferring care from hospitals into local communities.

‘Running across seven days a week, it will improve access for people in Bridgwater and the surrounding areas to specialist care, with the centre expected to provide almost 25,000 additional scans every year.'

Craig said the centre will open in summer 2026, dependent on planning approval, with development carried out by imaging services provider Ergea.

News of the centre followed the opening of a community diagnostic centre in Taunton in 2020, as well as the development of a diagnostic centre next to Yeovil Hospital, which is expected to open later this year.

The Bridgwater diagnostic centre will run a range of services from two CT scanners, two MRI scanners, four outpatient rooms and two echocardiography/ultrasound rooms to provide routine and specialist cardiac and cancer scanning, alongside clinics, offering a one-stop arrangement for appointments.