Category: Uncategorized (Page 5 of 5)

We’re disturbed at so many questionable mantras offered for the New Velindre project. So we’re going to challenge some of them. Let’s start with this one:

 ‘Of course clinicians are going to split 50-50 on this cancer-centre issue aren’t they?’

 Well, no they do not. Our post, Eminent Clinical Reviewers on Velindre’s Plans is a letter intended to guide cancer research in all of Wales and it embodies clear received practice in the entire UK.  That practice is all but exclusively ‘co-location’. In Wales the picture’s simple too – mainly Velindre’s leading clinical managers versus the rest (i.e. Velindre versus Swansea and all points north). It’s true. See the post: Letter from 163 Senior Clinicians. So Velindre’s clinical managers versus the rest – that’s not 50-50 is it? More like 5-95.

The Appendix 1 to the Nuffield Advice for Velindre reassured everyone that ‘the specialist unit can still retain a distinct identity’ and ‘building’, even ‘a separate organisational form’. First-class treatment and service provision (see About Us) but also the calm and quietness of a specialised cancer centre. If cancer patients don’t receive all of this – well you know who to blame.

But only if you act now.

It’s a mere 10-15 minutes task. All you do is send a 3-sentence email to your Senedd members for both constituency and region. You can google ‘Senedd Members’ for e-mail addresses.

 The first sentence expresses your deep concern personally at this Project. 

The second sentence merely urges the MS to visit http://colocate-velindre.co.uk/ to get the real story on Velindre. The second sentence asks the MS to go on and read the short but stunning post: Eminent Clinical Reviewers on Velindre’s Plans and if possible the 13^thSeptember posts.

The third sentence should be your name and address (postcode as a minimum) as many MS will only deal with correspondence from their own constituents.

BUT THEN please print out your e-mail message and deliver or post it 1^st class to the MS c/o of their local party office. This might just by-pass any gatekeeping and stalling.

 To modify a famous line – all it’s left now for bad to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

Clinicians concerned about the future of cancer care in South East Wales have repeatedly called for an independent clinical review of the stand-alone model. Velindre and Transforming Cancer Services have responded by claiming the model has been reviewed, implying that Dr Jane Barrett reviewed the model, and that the advice from the Nuffield Trust was a review, but to date NO external clinical review of the model has taken place.

We contacted all Welsh Government Assembly Members earlier this year. We summarised our concerns about the plans for the new cancer centre, and the process being used. We’re posting sections of the letter on this site.

Misrepresentation / Suppression of the level of concern within the Velindre NHS Trust:

In the document “Why not build a new Velindre Cancer Centre on another hospital site?”   Velindre make the following statement:

“Our plans for providing specialist, non-surgical cancer services for people across south east Wales have the support of health board clinicians, our staff and patients”

Both TCS (Transforming Cancer Services) and the Velindre NHS Trust will have been aware of the level of concern expressed by a significant number of its senior doctors and nurses.

We contacted all Welsh Government Assembly Members earlier this year. We summarised our concerns about the plans for the new cancer centre, and the process being used. We’re posting information from the letter on this site. 

Misrepresentation of the transfer times for patients requiring urgent escalation of care:

A major weakness of the stand-alone model is the need to urgently transfer acutely unwell patients for care that can’t be provided on the remote Velindre site.

In their document “Why not build a new Velindre Cancer Centre on another hospital site?” Velindre say:

“UHW is less than three miles away and can be reached within minutes.”

The statement as it reads is very reassuring, the reality, less so.

We submitted a freedom of information request to the Welsh Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) requesting information on transfer times. We asked about how long patients were waiting before the ambulance arrived, how long the journey took and how long patients waited at UHW (University Hospital of Wales) before handover. They told us….

Dr Frank Atherton at the Health Social Care and Sports Committee meeting held on 30/09/2020 at 09:42:50 Dr Atherton states:-

“I think perhaps, with the benefit of hindsight, having made the decision by the health boards to go ahead with the construction of the new Velindre cancer centre back in 2018, perhaps that clinical engagement should have continued, and that’s perhaps allowed—that perhaps didn’t happen as much as it needed to.”

Awareness is spreading of the letter sent to the Wales Cancer Research Group (WCRC) from its External Advisory Group and opposing a ‘stand-alone’ cancer centre. Velindre managers have not shown much joy about this.

They have tried to play down the Letter’s significance. They’ve claimed that Nuffield provided ‘advice on the clinical model underpinning non-surgical oncology services in South East Wales. The issues raised in the letter were taken into consideration by the Nuffield Trust in reaching its conclusion.’

The New Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust (opened June 2020) is one of the UK’s leading cancer centres providing highly specialist cancer care to a population of 2.4m people across Cheshire, Merseyside and the surrounding areas including the Isle of Man.

We will be updating this blog regularly with issues raised and information as it becomes available.

Please email us should you wish to comment or add your own voice to this growing community.

Supporting Best Cancer Care.