New cancer treatment centre for Liverpool
Liverpool moved a step closer to getting its first radiotherapy treatment centre this week. Plans are now firmly in place and building work is scheduled to start in the next few months to complete the development by the end of 2010.
The new £17M purpose built facility will be situated next to The Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery on land at University Hospital Aintree. The centre will be staffed and operated by Clatterbridge’s own specialist radiographers and doctors and will house three state of the art radiotherapy treatment machines as well as expert cancer rehabilitation and support services.
Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology Chiefs announced plans back in February 2008 to build the new radiotherapy facility to help improve access to cancer services for Merseyside residents. The expansion plans will see cancer patients across Merseyside benefiting from travelling shorter distances for radiotherapy treatments.
Funding for the project is being actively supported by local charity ‘The Marina Dalglish Appeal’. Marina was diagnosed and successfully treated for breast cancer at Clatterbridge in 2003. She went on to launch The Marina Dalglish Appeal in 2004 with the aim of raising £1.5M to fund a chemotherapy ward at University Hospital Aintree. Staffed and operated by specialist Clatterbridge chemotherapy nurses ‘The Marina Dalglish Centre’ was opened in 2007 enabling cancer patients in the region to receive their chemotherapy treatment closer to home.
The momentum and success of that initial Appeal continued and in partnership with Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology, the Appeal Committee is now working hard to fund a further £5M towards the development of the new ‘Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool.’
Marina was recently recognised by the Queen in her 2009 New Year’s honours list for her continued breast cancer charity work. She told us: “Through ‘The Marina Dalglish Centre’ at University Hospital Aintree, we have seen first hand the benefit to patients of bringing chemotherapy services closer to their home. The work done at Clatterbridge is second to none, but a long uncomfortable car journey when you are trying to deal with the effects of cancer can be very hard. This new cancer centre in Liverpool will benefit from the expertise of Clatterbridge staff and a location that will ease the burden of the journey through the tunnel. We are so excited to be involved in what will be a magnificent facility. You will be seeing a much stronger presence from the Marina Dalglish Appeal over the coming year – we have been blown away by the generosity of our supporters in the past and I know with the same support we will reach our target to help fund this much needed and hopeful facility.”
It is a national recommendation that patients should not travel more than 45 minutes for radiotherapy. This is not the case at the moment as two thirds of cancer patients in Merseyside and Cheshire live north of the River Mersey and there is no other radiotherapy provision outside the Clatterbridge site on the Wirral. As the incidence of cancer is increasing and techniques to screen and detect the disease are improving, it is anticipated that more radiotherapy services will be needed to meet the increase in demand for treatment.
Clinical Director of Radiotherapy at the Centre, Dr Brian Haylock said: “We are investing in this development for the simple reason that it will be a huge benefit to patients in this region, and patient care is at the heart of everything we do. Current services at the Wirral site will continue as before but a significant portion of our patients will no longer need to travel to Wirral to receive their cancer treatment. In addition the benefit of the close proximity to The Walton Centre will enable more complex ‘stereotactic’ treatments to the brain. Clatterbridge has an established heritage and reputation in Wirral - we celebrated 50 years of providing cancer services last year. The new centre will benefit from this 50 years of expertise but will enable treatments closer to home improving services for the start of the next 50 years.”