Visions for proposed new hospital unveiled

Posted 1st October 2014

A new specialist cancer hospital could be built in the heart of Liverpool if proposals out to public consultation until 19th October are approved.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, which provides the specialist cancer service for Merseyside and Cheshire, is seeking people’s views on its proposals to develop a major flagship hospital on the same site as the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the University of Liverpool.

The design concept for the new cancer hospital, which would provide expert care as well as carrying out groundbreaking research and clinical trials, builds on feedback from patients, visitors and staff who have highlighted how much they value the bright yet peaceful environment and sense of harmony with nature at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre’s Wirral site.

Although the design is still at an outline stage, it has been created with the varying needs of different cancer patients, services and staff very much in mind. Chemotherapy – which is often given by injection over a few hours to people in specially-built chemotherapy chairs – is currently planned to be on the top floor, which would give patients spectacular views over the city while they received treatment.

Every inpatient would have their own single room with access to natural light and external views. Two of the three ward areas would also have their own access to outside space on the upper floors of the building. Inpatients’ rooms would run in a ‘ribbon’ along the perimeter of the new hospital, so they each had plenty of light and views across the city.

Light wells running throughout the building would ensure that the Radiotherapy department, which would be located at the bottom of the building, had a bright and airy feel.

There would also be corridor links on two floors to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital next door, providing easy access to staff and patients travelling between the two buildings. This is particularly important as it would provide cancer patients and staff with rapid access to intensive care and other key medical and surgical specialties in the Royal, where needed.

The new hospital would also include a dedicated Teenage & Young Adult Unit that would bring together inpatient and day-case facilities for people aged 16 to 24 as well as operating as a base for those patients visiting the hospital for other treatments such as radiotherapy. The existing teenage and young adult unit in the Wirral cancer centre just has inpatient beds.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre wants to hear people’s views on the proposals, which represent a £118m investment in expanding and improving cancer care in Merseyside and Cheshire. They also include redesign and investment in its existing Wirral site, which would continue to provide outpatient services and care for around 90 per cent of patient attendances by people from Wirral and West Cheshire.

Project Director Fiona Jones from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre said: “The new hospital would enable us to expand and improve our services and research activity, and bring us closer to the majority of our patients, who live north of the Mersey. It would also provide on-site access for our inpatients to intensive care and other key specialties, which we don’t have at Wirral and which is increasingly important as we care for more complex patients who have other health conditions as well as cancer. We are keen to hear people’s views via the public consultation running until 19th October.”

Ged Couser, the architect director from BDP Manchester who has created the initial design, said: “We wanted to take advantage of the natural change in ground level across the site, sloping from the highest point next to the Royal Liverpool to its lowest next to the dental school on West Derby Street. That’s enabled us to design a building with graduated levels coming down from its ‘prow’, creating terraces that provide access to landscaping and outside space.”

The Transforming Cancer Care public consultation launched on Monday 28th July and ends on Sunday 19th October 2014. Full details of the proposals, a short film and the consultation documents and questionnaire are available at www.transformingcancercaremc.nhs.uk. People can contact the Consultation Team on 0151 296 7068 or engagement@cmcsu.nhs.uk.

Roadshow events are taking place across Merseyside and Cheshire so people can find out more and have their say. Please visit www.transformingcancercaremc.nhs.uk for the latest information.