Why change? :: Transforming Cancer Care

Why Change?

We have superb cancer services in Merseyside and Cheshire. The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust – the specialist cancer hospital for this area – is nationally renowned and consistently ranks as one of the best in the country, both for quality of care and patient feedback. In February 2017 we were officially rated as 'outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission.

But if we are to ensure that people here are truly to benefit from world-class cancer care in the coming years, we cannot stand still. We need to Transform Cancer Care for the following reasons:

The number of people with cancer is set to rise as the population ages. We need to expand cancer services to meet that demand so people right across Merseyside and Cheshire can access the best specialist care.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre doesn’t have access to intensive care or medical and surgical specialties on its main site in Wirral. This is increasingly important in providing the best care to the sickest patients. Someone with cancer may need input from a heart or kidney specialist, for example, while having treatment. At the moment, they may have to be transferred by ambulance to another hospital for this, interrupting their cancer care.

The Wirral site isn’t centrally located for the Merseyside and Cheshire population it serves. Around 63% of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre’s current patients live closer to central Liverpool than to Wirral.

To continue providing the best cancer care, The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre’s experts need to carry out research and clinical trials. At the moment we can’t carry out some cutting-edge trials because they can only take place in centres with intensive care and other key specialties on site. Patients from Merseyside and Cheshire are missing out on opportunities to take part in these trials.

Why more cancer research is so important

Providing the best cancer care to people in Merseyside and Cheshire requires health professionals with the most advanced expertise in their field and who carry out clinical trials of new treatments that patients can access.

Our area already has a good reputation for certain kinds of cancer research but there is research we can’t do because The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre doesn’t have intensive care and medical and surgical specialties on site. It’s also not that close to the university and other key research partners.

Having a new cancer centre on the same site as the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the University of Liverpool would significantly increase the amount and type of cancer research we could do, with massive benefits for patients for generations to come.

Did you know…?

103 inpatients were transferred by ambulance from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in 2014 because there was no intensive care or medical/surgical expertise on site. That’s increased from 74 in 2013 and 53 in 2011 and this trend will continue as the population ages and more people have long-term conditions like heart disease and diabetes. A new cancer centre beside the Royal Liverpool University Hospital would have intensive care and medical/surgical expertise on site.

Professor Dan Palmer, Chair of Medical Oncology, Head of the Academic Oncology Unit and Consultant Medical Oncologist, University of Liverpool and The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, said:

"Cancer is now the leading cause of death in the UK and, for many cancers, the incidence and mortality rates are significantly higher in the North West than in other parts of the country. That’s why there remains an urgent need for better tests for earlier diagnosis and for more effective treatments for our patients in this region.

"These goals can only be achieved through high-quality research. This requires integrated team working between Clatterbridge’s cancer specialists and experts from other medical and surgical specialties in order to offer the latest novel therapies in a safe environment. It also requires close collaboration with the cancer research scientists at the University of Liverpool and the clinical trials experts in the Liverpool Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit based in the University.

"The burden of cancer within this region presents enormous challenges and yet, through this collaborative research approach, there is huge potential to overcome these challenges. The Transforming Cancer Care project provides a unique and exciting opportunity to harness this potential and is absolutely fundamental to our aim of improving cancer outcomes for our patients."