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.