GE Healthcare Cleans Up at the CDC
Last week, the Plymouth Community Diagnostic Centre (PCDC) has been officially opened by Luke Pollard MP and University Hospitals NHS Trust colleagues, marking a major milestone in improving access to diagnostic services for local people.
Located on Western Approach in Plymouth City Centre, the £22 million facility will provide a wide range of vital tests, scans and checks in a convenient, community-based setting. The new centre is expected to deliver more than 91,600 diagnostic tests each year, with capacity for up to 330 appointments per day, helping reduce waiting times and improve patient experience. The CDC will also reduce travel out to Derriford and will hopefully mean more patients can walk or catch the bus to their appointments which in turn will reduce carbon emissions and air pollution.
During the excitement of the CDC opening, our lead CT Radiographer Colin invited GE Healthcare to come down to Plymouth to take part in a litter pick. As a company that UHP procured 2 CT Scanners and 2 MRI Scanners from, GE Healthcare have a range of social value and sustainability commitments built into their tender. The litter pick contributed to these actions and was enacted by a small army of GE volunteers. Despite the fact that the immediate area around the CDC was relatively clean and free of litter, the GE volunteers were able to fill lots of bags. The volunteers ventured widely around the location, focusing particularly on the area to the West of the CDC which is one of the more deprived communities locally.
A massive thank you to GE Healthcare for supporting our community in this way and to Colin for organising it! Working together and offering a helping hand can make a big difference to how we feel about where we live and work, and litter picking in particular is so important for preserving our wildlife.
According to Keep Britain Tidy, ‘Littering is a crime that…makes places look unloved and uncared for, it increases people's fear of crime, it damages our waterways and eco-systems, it injures or kills pets and wildlife. The RSPCA reports that it receives about 5,000 calls a year about animals injured by litter. Unless it is picked up, litter can, ultimately, end up adding to the plastic pollution in our oceans, breaking down into microplastics that, finally, find their way into the food chain having been ingested by fish’.
Be the solution to this problem by picking up litter or throwing your litter away properly. Ready to do more? See how you can get involved with the the litter picking volunteer groups in Plymouth.
