Plans to open two diagnostic centres in the borough to tackle health inequalities are at "risk" due to funding concerns.

Earlier this year it emerged that Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA), which runs hospitals and services such as Fairfield General Hospital, aims to set up a couple of "spoke sites" to "provide access to routine low-level diagnostics close to home".

And at a meeting of the borough's locality board in February it was said that one of the hubs would be based in Radcliffe with a cardiorespiratory focus, while the other would be located in Prestwich to help deal with frailty problems.

The proposals follow a community diagnostic centre (CDC) being opened in December with a second due to "go live" in Salford this summer.

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A report about the meeting said: "The NCA and Bury system partners established a task group in November 2022.

"The aim of the group was to co-produce plans to develop two spoke sites in Bury, as satellite sites from the NCA CDC hubs, to serve the populations of Bury and provide access to routine low-level diagnostics close to home.

"The spokes will sit alongside a range of other diagnostics already available to Bury residents in primary, community and secondary care.

"The current proposition that has been supported by Clinical and Professional Senate and the Integrated Delivery Collaborative Board is to apply for funding for two spokes in Bury - Radcliffe with a cardiorespiratory focus and Prestwich a frailty focus.

"Spoke provision in both these locations would support the strategic approach outlined in the Bury ‘Let’s Do It’ strategy.

"The local authority public health team has completed analysis that supports the proposal to locate the spokes in Radcliffe and Prestwich to address the populations health needs, to support work to tackle inequalities, and maximise the available resources, now and into the future.

"NCA is leading the completion of the business case to secure capital and revenue funding to establish the spokes in Bury and is aiming for submission of the business case, subject to Bury system support and NCA finance sign off, by the end of February 2023."

But a report published ahead of the locality board's recent meeting earlier this month said there is a "risk of NCA not being successful in the business case to NHSE (National Health Service England) to secure funding to establish diagnostic spokes in Bury to increase capacity and improve patient flow".

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Last month, it was found that one in 20 Bury residents said they were in poor health when asked in the 2021 Census.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show 5.8 per cent of residents in Bury said they were in "bad or very bad" general health in the Census.

Nationally, 5.4 per cent of people responded saying they were in bad or very bad health.

This rose to 6.4 per cent in the North West.

And other ONS data shows there were 102 deaths from respiratory illness for every 100,000 people in Bury in 2021 – meaning the town has more than the 94 for England as a whole.

The figures have been standardised to account for age differences across different areas.