£162m deal gives city its first cancer hospital
COMEDIAN Johnny Vegas has donned the hard hat and high viz jacket to hail a deal between The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust and Laing O’Rourke to build a new cancer hospital this side of the water.
The £162m, PFI-free deal, which will see the hospital go up next to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the University of Liverpool, was yesterday described as a "significant milestone in this once in a generation project".
The new Clatterbridge Cancer Centre will provide specialist chemotherapy and other drug therapies, radiotherapy, inpatient and outpatient care, cancer support and rehabilitation, bone marrow transplant and urgent cancer care. There will also be a teenage and young adult unit.
It will care for people from across Merseyside and Cheshire and beyond, with solid tumours and blood cancers and will also carry out clinical trials of new cancer treatments.
The new hospital will be in addition to The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre’s existing hospitals in Wirral and Aintree, and its chemotherapy and outpatient services in other hospitals across the region including Southport, Chester, Halton, St Helen’s and Liverpool.
Vegas, real name Michael Pennington, became a familiar face ambassador for Clatterbridge after his dad, Lol Pennington, was treated at its Wirral base.
“The new hospital is absolutely vital. It may not have affected you, but with cancer we know at some point it will and this hospital will help transform cancer care, not only for our families but for families in the future," he said.
The Trust, which provides specialist cancer services for Merseyside and Cheshire as well as carrying out vital research into treatments, will expand its services with the new hospital.
Further developments are also planned at the current site of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Wirral, following completion of the new Liverpool cancer Centre.
The £162M project is being funded by the NHS and government sources, with an additional £15 million planned to come from The New Cancer Hospital Appeal; this means that there is no PFI funding on the project.
Andrew Cannell, chief executive of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, said: “We are delighted to be working with Laing O’Rourke on this very exciting development that will transform cancer care for this region.
“We have worked closely with staff and patient representatives on the design of the new building and we are all very excited to now see our plans taking shape in what will be a landmark for the area.
“The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre has a commitment to providing the very best care for our patients. The new cancer hospital will allow us to do that.”
