Cancer care gets massive boost

Date published: 29/05/2008

Local cancer patients will be able to get treatment much closer to home after plans for a £17 million radiotherapy unit were unanimously approved.

The centre, which will be a satellite branch for the Christie Hospital, will be built at the Royal Oldham Hospital close to the new £17 million pathology lab and completion is expected towards the end of next year.

Plans for the centre, which will be financed and run by Christie’s, also include a multi-storey car park and a further application will be submitted at a later date.

The unit will employ 46 staff and will mean local patients no longer having to make the long journey to the Withington for treatment. A second satellite centre is also planned for Salford’s Hope Hospital.

The Oldham unit will hold two £1.3m linear accelerators — the machines which provide radiotherapy — and Christie doctors, radiographers, nurses and other medical experts will be able to treat around 70 patients a day from the north east of Greater Manchester, whihc includes Rochdale.

Pennine Acute Trust, which runs the hospital, is in the process of selling former hospital buildings at the Westhulme site and this area will be used for staff car parking as a temporary measure while the multi storey is being built to free up more spaces for patients.

Research has shown that of all cancers that are cured, 40 per cent are due to radiotherapy treatment and the new unit will create approximately 40 new jobs.

Professor Peter Williams, project director, said: “This new unit will undoubtedly have tremendous benefits for our patients, who will be able to access the highest standards of Christie care, without the need for long journeys to south Manchester.”

Dr Ruth Jameson, medical director of Pennine Acute Trust, added: “We can’t overstate how important this facility will be for patients. It will bring radiotherapy much closer to the 800,000 residents who live in the Oldham, Rochdale, Bury and north Manchester areas, saving them a lengthy trip across the city.

Phil Woolas MP for Milnrow & Newhey added: “This is great news for patients and their families."