At the beginning of this year, I set out my priorities for the people of Woking, with a key priority being our local NHS.

Over the past few months, my efforts have been particularly directed at supporting Woking Community Hospital and the delivery of our new diagnostic centre there.

The News & Mail have covered some of my recent activities, including welcoming the Health Secretary to Woking Community Hospital, doubling the budget for the diagnostic centre and, just the other week, welcoming our Prime Minister to Woking to see the progress being made on this state-of-the-art facility.

It was great to bring Rishi Sunak to the community hospital to speak with local staff and patients and review progress on the construction of the diagnostic hub. The visit aimed to demonstrate the government’s commitment to improving healthcare infrastructure, to providing enhanced services to the residents of Woking and surrounding areas and to cutting NHS waiting times locally and nationally.

During his visit the Prime Minister met with doctors, nurses and staff to discuss the importance of the new diagnostic centre for enhancing healthcare delivery and improving patient outcomes. The centre will offer a range of important tests and scans, significantly reducing waiting times and providing residents with convenient access to essential diagnostic services.

In addition to speaking with healthcare professionals, Rishi inspected the diagnostic centre construction site, where he reaffirmed the government's commitment to investing in state-of-the-art healthcare facilities across England, including here in Woking. The Prime Minister expressed his confidence in the project’s progress and emphasised the positive impact it will have for the health and wellbeing of Woking residents.

During his visit, the Prime Minister kindly said: “Jonathan has championed this community diagnostic centre and has secured significant extra funding.

“It was fantastic to see at first-hand the difference these improved tests and scans are making for local residents.

“I am pleased to see the progress being made on Woking Community Hospital’s new diagnostic hub building and it was great to speak with local patients who are benefiting from some of the new scans that are already taking place in the existing building.”

The new diagnostic centre represents a major step forward in healthcare provision for Woking. By offering important tests and scans closer to home, we can reduce the burden on hospital services and save residents 30,000 trips they would have had to make to Ashford and St Peter's hospitals.

For me, improving our local NHS facilities has always been about delivering real improvements for Woking residents.

Several years ago, I championed Woking Community Hospital and our local health services all coming together to deliver the innovative Bedser Hub that has done so much to help many older residents. With this new diagnostic hub we are making further progress on improving local NHS facilities and services and it is a real honour to have played a key role in making that happen.

Jonathan Lord

Conservative MP for Woking