Under-Secretary of State for Health Innovation and Safety visits new building on University of Huddersfield’s NHIC
Lucy Batizovsky | March 18, 2026 | News story | Research and Development | NHS, University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Dr Zubir Ahmed MP, the Under-Secretary of State for Health Innovation and Safety, has visited the recently opened Emily Siddon Building at the University of Huddersfield’s National Health Innovation Campus (NHIC).
Dr Ahmed toured the building and officially opened the Southgate Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC).
Southgate CDC is the first in the country to be completed on a university campus and is operated in partnership with Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT).
Dr Ahmed said: “This government is rewiring our NHS to fit around people’s lives – thanks to the £29bn extra investment we’re putting into it.
“That’s why I’m delighted to open the new Community Diagnostic Centre in Huddersfield, which will help thousands of people across Kirklees get treated sooner and get better quicker.
“It will mean people can get tests, checks and scans locally on their lunch breaks or on the way to pick up the kids from school – without travelling across town to a more traditional hospital setting.”
The MP for Glasgow South West also visited the Health Business Innovation Centre (HBIC), where he met emerging health innovators, from the Huddersfield Health Innovation Incubator (HHII) and Propel West Yorkshire.
HBIC aims to become a hub for local entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses working in health to tackle health inequalities across West Yorkshire, with HII and Propel offering support programmes to early stage and scale-up organisations.
Attendees of the ‘Navigating support for health innovators in West Yorkshire’ event, including the NHIC Regional and Business Lead, Professor Liz Towns-Andrews, and the CEO of Paxman Cooling Systems, Richard Paxman OBE, also met with Dr Ahmed.
Of the CDC, University of Huddersfield Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tim Thornton, said: “It’s a great example of the potential for collaboration between the NHS and the University to bring real benefit for local people. And welcoming Dr Zubir Ahmed allows us to showcase the wider capacity for world-leading innovation here on the campus.”
Chief Executive, CHFT, Rob Aitchison, said: “We are really seeing how our CDCs are working for our patients – across both our CDCs in Halifax and Huddersfield, we are now testing over 10,000 people each month. Because we can offer more tests, people can be diagnosed and treated quicker, and we can also expand services such as tele-dermatology and breathlessness too.”
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