St Margaret's Hospital Community Diagnostic Centre

A PLACE BUILT

AROUND PEOPLE

A state-of-the-art community diagnostic centre that's built around people...Contents

St Margaret's CDC
A place built
around people

A new chapter for care in Epping

There are moments in the life of a community when a building becomes more than bricks, glass and specialist equipment. It becomes a promise.

At St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping, the opening of the new Community Diagnostic Centre marks one of those moments: a significant investment in local healthcare, a visible commitment to delivering care closer to home, and a new chapter for patients across Epping, Harlow, West Essex and the surrounding areas.

For Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, this is not simply the completion of a construction project.

It is the realisation of a much bigger ambition: to create a modern, welcoming and highly capable diagnostic centre that helps people access vital tests sooner, supports earlier diagnosis, reduces waiting times and gives patients something hugely important: reassurance.

As guests gathered for the official opening, the sense of pride was unmistakable. The centre had been years in the making, shaped not only by clinical need and national investment, but by the people who would use it, work in it and rely on it.

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Stakeholders

The Princaess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust
P23 Framework
Morgan SIndall Construction
AD Architects
Gardiner & Theoabld
Troup, Bywaters + Anders
Knapp Hicks + Partners

Falling in love with the NHS

The story of the centre begins, fittingly, with people.

For Thom Lafferty, Chief Executive of Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, the NHS remains one of the country’s most cherished institutions.

Not only because of the care it provides, but because of the extraordinary range of people who make that care possible.

Doctors and nurses are part of that story, but so too are allied health professionals, porters, cleaners, administrators, estates teams and countless others whose work often sits quietly behind the scenes.

That inclusive culture, the sense that everyone has a role to play in serving the public, sits at the heart of what makes the NHS so meaningful to those who work within it.

Seeing the actual building finished, operational, with real patients in it, moves away from that theoretical concept to something which is actually improving care today, and that’s tremendously exciting.

Thom Lafferty, CEO, Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust

For Dr Monica Bose, consultant gastroenterologist and divisional director for Planned Pathways and clinical senior responsible officer for the CDC, that connection is deeply personal.

Many colleagues were born at St Margaret’s when it had a maternity hospital on site. Others have spent entire careers connected to the hospital. Friends, relatives and neighbours live locally. The communities served by the Trust are not abstract populations on a map; they are people with names, families, fears and hopes.

That is why the opening of the new centre carries such emotional weight.

It represents a place where professional commitment and personal purpose meet: a place designed to help colleagues do their best work, and patients receive care in a calmer, more accessible and supportive environment.

The first time I walked into the building when it was operational and patients were here, there was a tremendous sense of joy. It’s been designed so beautifully to not only serve our patients, but also to make the environment one which staff feel comfortable in and feel valued in.

Dr Monica Bose, Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust

Care closer
to home

Community Diagnostic Centres are a key part of the national shift towards providing more care outside busy acute hospital settings.

For many patients, the experience of needing a diagnostic test can be stressful enough without having to travel to a large district general hospital, navigate a crowded site or wait in an environment designed around emergency and inpatient care.

The St Margaret’s CDC offers a different model. But its importance is not measured by equipment alone.

As Thom set out during the opening ceremony, the centre is about much more than “new bits of kit”.

It creates the opportunity to deliver holistic pathways of care, including services such as breathlessness and FibroScan pathways, that bring professionals together around the needs of the patient, rather than asking patients to move between fragmented parts of the system.

For patients, that means clarity, reassurance and, in some cases, earlier treatment.

For clinical teams, it means the chance to redesign care around the person, rather than the system.

Built through partnership

The journey to opening day was built on collaboration.

The project brought together clinicians, Trust leaders, primary care partners, community services, patient groups, local stakeholders, national teams and Morgan Sindall Construction as the construction partner.

It was a genuine team effort, shaped by the people who would use, work in and benefit from the centre.

That mattered because healthcare buildings have to do more than function. They have to support anxious patients, busy staff, complex clinical pathways and moments that can change lives.

Throughout the build, clinical colleagues, patients and partners were able to walk the site, share feedback and influence the detail of the environment.

Morgan Sindall’s team supported those visits, helping turn the construction process into something open, collaborative and practical.

The result is a centre that feels considered. Rooms have been shaped around clinical use, comfort and light. Staff spaces have been designed to support teamwork and wellbeing. The building carries the imprint of the people who helped shape it.

More than a building

There is a powerful shift when a project moves from drawings and meetings to a finished, working healthcare space.

For the Trust team, seeing the CDC open, operational and welcoming patients was a deeply meaningful moment. It was no longer a concept. It was care happening in real time.

The environment plays a central role in that. The centre has been designed to feel calm, bright and welcoming; a therapeutic space where patients can feel more at ease, and staff can feel valued in the work they do every day.

That matters. Patient experience is not separate from quality; it is part of it. How people feel when they arrive for care can affect their confidence, anxiety and overall experience.

At St Margaret’s, better access, clearer wayfinding, more space and a calmer setting all help patients feel they are in the right place, at the right time.

For staff, it brings new possibilities. For patients, it offers faster access, better environments and greater reassurance. For the local community, it is a visible sign that their health and wellbeing matter.

Looking ahead

The opening of the St Margaret’s Community Diagnostic Centre is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of what the centre can now make possible.

For the Trust, the centre shows what investment in local healthcare can achieve. It strengthens St Margaret’s as a local care campus and supports the wider move towards neighbourhood health; services designed around the needs of communities, not just hospital systems.

As services develop, the CDC will support earlier diagnosis, reduce waits and help clinical teams deliver more joined-up care.

It gives the Trust confidence, ambition and hope for what can be achieved next. Most importantly, it gives patients a place built around their needs: closer to home, easier to access and designed with care at its heart.

For those who helped bring it to life, it is more than a professional milestone. It is a moment of pride and the feeling of seeing years of work become a place of calm, hope and care for generations to come.

The CDC stands as a testament to progress and partnership, bringing state-of-the-art diagnostic services closer to home. Together you have created a centre that exemplifies modern healthcare

Janet Whitehouse, Mayor of Epping

About the project

Morgan Sindall Construction was appointed under the ProCure 23 (P23) framework to refurbish and extend an existing building to create advanced diagnostic facilities, including MRI, CT, lung function, cardiology and other outpatient services.

The integration of building services presented some of the most technically demanding aspects of the build, especially during the refurbishment of existing hospital spaces. The primary challenge centred on threading large, armoured electrical cables through extremely constrained ceiling voids - specifically, 6cm trusses connecting the existing hospital bungalow to the new CDC building.

This BREEAM Excellent job was delivered on a live hospital campus and across two distinct phases - with the final phase complete in October 2026.

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The Morgan Sindall team have created a really welcoming and engaging approach. That has really enhanced the overall positivity around the project. This has probably been the project where I’ve felt most engaged by the people constructing. We can now move forward with confidence, having had such a positive experience and to a large degree that’s due to the customer service they’ve provided.

Thom Lafferty, CEO, Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust

I have to commend our colleagues at Morgan Sindall - they’ve been so accommodating. The site team have been brilliant in supporting proactive walkabouts and engagement. We’ve been able to bring clinical colleagues, patients and partners around the site to help co-design and inform the build. What we’ve created feels like something we all have a stake in - a true collaboration where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Dr Monica Bose, Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust