Where we are today
Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology, as it is now known, became a Foundation Trust hospital in 2006 and is one of the largest NHS specialist cancer treatment facilities in the UK – employing 860 staff and treating more than 26,000 patients a year. Patient numbers continue to rise and during 2010/11 we registered approx 7,700 new patients.
The treatment centre has undergone significant financial investment over recent years and now hosts one of the best-equipped radiotherapy centres in the UK. Facilities include ten linear accelerators (three based at a satellite radiotherapy centre in Liverpool including the UK’s first Novalis Tx treatment system), superficial and orthovoltage X-ray machines, two simulators, two scanners - a wide bore single slice Computer Tomography (CT) simulator and a multi-slice helical Computer Tomography (CT) simulator. In addition there are three planning computers, including 3D planning facilities.
The Centre has facilities for high dose rate remote after-loading brachytherapy and iodine seed prostate brachytherapy in addition to facilities for stereotactic radiotherapy. There continues to be a purpose-built mould room and a dedicated operating theatre with an integrated brachytherapy imaging unit. Our cyclotron facility remains as the only patient treatment cyclotron in the UK, providing a service with proton therapy for eye tumours.
Research and development, including participation in national and international clinical trails, is an important feature of the cancer centre.
Chemotherapy has been part of the hospital's activity since the 1970s and our consultants were amongst the first to use multiple drug chemotherapy.
In order to provide treatment in the most appropriate way for patients, we have developed a comprehensive network of chemotherapy clinics across the region, an in-house educational initiative has provided nurses with the knowledge and skills to administer complex chemotherapy and staff also travel from the hospital to provide treatment for patients in hospitals near to where they live.
Chemotherapy is now the fastest growing area of the centre’s activity.
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