The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is an

NHS Foundation Trust An NHS foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service (England), National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care (and, until the a ...

, which specialises in the treatment of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. The centre is one of several specialist hospitals located within

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

; alongside Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital,

Alder Hey Children's Hospital Alder Hey Children's Hospital is a children's hospital and NHS foundation trust in West Derby, Liverpool, England. It is one of the largest children's hospitals in the United Kingdom, and one of several specialist hospitals within the Liverpool ...

Liverpool Women's Hospital Liverpool Women's Hospital is a major obstetrics, gynaecology and neonatology research hospital in Liverpool, England. It is one of several specialist hospitals located within the Liverpool City Region, alongside Alder Hey Children's Hospital, ...

, and the

Walton Centre The Walton Centre, formally known as the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, is a major neurology hospital located in the suburb of Fazakerley in the city of Liverpool, England. It is one of several specialist hospitals located within ...

. Currently headquartered at Clatterbridge Health Park,

Bebington Bebington () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Cheshire, it is south of Liverpool, close to the River Mersey on the eastern side of the Wirral Peninsula ...

, Wirral, the Trust operates an extensive network of services across

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

and

which includes their three sites in Liverpool, Wirral and Aintree, as well as clinics in hospitals across the region, and its team of specialist nurses who treat patients while they're at home or work.

History

In 1862 the Liverpool Hospital for Cancer and Diseases of the Skin was established. This hospital moved to a new site and became The Radium Institute and by 1901 was one of the two major radiotherapy centres in the

North West of England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

. In 1950s the organisation was renamed The Liverpool Clinic and in March 1958 moved to a new site near Clatterbridge, Wirral. The hospital had three wards and by 1959 was treating up to 80 patients per day on a Mullard 4 MeV linear accelerator. In the 1960s superficial x-ray equipment was introduced, along with a second linear accelerator in 1966 and two Cobalt-60 units. In July 1972 the hospital was expanded to include outpatient departments, computerised radiotherapy planning facilities and medical records facilities. Between 1984 and 1987 the site was again expanded to include Computer Tomography, a gamma camera and The Douglas Cyclotron. In the 1990s these were followed by MRI facilities, a High Dose Rate afterloader and additional linear accelerators. In 2011 the Trust opened a satellite hospital on the Aintree University Hospital campus to provide more convenient radiotherapy services to Liverpool. On 1 April 2012 the trust changed its name from Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology NHS Foundation Trust (CCO) to The Clatterbirdge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust (CCC). In 2016 the Trust established a subsidiary company, Clatterbridge PropCare Services Ltd, to which 13 estates and facilities staff were transferred. The intention was to achieve VAT benefits, as well as pay bill savings, by recruiting new staff on less expensive non-NHS contracts. VAT benefits arise because NHS trusts can only claim VAT back on a small subset of goods and services they buy. The

Value Added Tax Act 1994 The Value Added Tax Act 1994 (c. 23) is a UK tax law, concerning taxation of goods and services that fall within the scope of Value Added Tax (VAT). It came into force on 1 September 1994. The Value Added Tax Act 1983 was repealed and replaced by ...

provides a mechanism through which NHS trusts can qualify for refunds on contracted out services. In June 2020 the Trust opened a new 11-storey hospital building in Liverpool next to the

Royal Liverpool University Hospital Royal Liverpool University Hospital (RLUH) is a major teaching and research hospital located in the city of Liverpool, England. It is the largest and busiest hospital in Merseyside and Cheshire. A major redevelopment of the hospital began in 20 ...

and

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

Hospitals

The Trust operates three sites across Merseyside, with a number of outpatient clinics hosted in other Trusts in the area.

Clatterbridge Cancer Centre - Wirral

The main base of the trust is located on the Wirral near Bebington. It provides a range of

radiotherapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignant cells. It is normally delivered by a linear particle ...

and

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

services along with inpatient wards. The site hosts the only low energy

proton therapy In medicine, proton therapy, or proton radiotherapy, is a type of particle therapy that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often to treat cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam ...

unit in the United Kingdom, which provides proton beam therapy for eye tumours. One of the first

NHS England NHS England, formally the NHS Commissioning Board for England, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning si ...

funded

community diagnostic centre Community diagnostic centres were introduced into the English NHS in 2021 as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in England. The intention was to make tests more easily available, reduce visits to hospitals and reduce patient travel. ...

s in England is Clatterbridge Diagnostics, on the Wirral site, which offers tests for Phlebotomy, Ultrasound, MRI, CT, ECHO, ECG and Sleep Studies.

Clatterbridge Private Clinic

In June 2013, as part of a joint venture between the trust and Ireland's Mater Private Hospital, a private radiotherapy clinic was opened at the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. The clinic provides chemotherapy, and radiotherapy treatments using a dedicated linear accelerator.

Maggie's Merseyside

In 2014

Maggie's Centres Maggie's centres are a network of drop-in centres across the United Kingdom and abroad that aim to help anyone who has been affected by cancer. They are intended as welcoming and caring environments that provide support, information and practica ...

, a registered charity that provides support to anyone affected by cancer, opened Maggie's Merseyside centre.

Clatterbridge Cancer Centre - Aintree

Located on the campus of Aintree University Hospital, adjacent to The Walton Centre. The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre Aintree opened in 2011, as a radiotherapy satellite centre. At a cost of £17 million, the unit was partly funded by The Marina Dalglish Appeal. The Aintree facility provides

Stereotactic Radiosurgery Stereotactic surgery is a minimally invasive form of surgery, surgical intervention that makes use of a three-dimensional coordinates, coordinate system to locate small targets inside the body and to perform on them some action such as ablation, ...

services in partnership with The Walton Centre.

Clatterbridge Cancer Centre - Liverpool

In 2008 a review was published into the provision of non-surgical

oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

services within the Merseyside and Cheshire Cancer Networ

In this review; its authors, Professor Mark Baker and Mr Roger Cannon, recommended that an Inpatient care, inpatient cancer treatment facility be built in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre Foundation Trust announced in 2011 that this recommendation was being actioned, and would take advantage of separate, but concurrent, plans for the redevelopment of the

. Approval to move forward with the plan for the new cancer hospital on West Derby Street, Liverpool was given by the eight local authorities in December 2014. This followed a public consultation, which ran from July 2014 to October 2014. In October 2015, it was announced that the planned hospital will have 11 floors, and also include

blood cancer Tumors of the hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues (American English) or tumours of the haematopoietic and lymphoid tissues (British English) are tumors that affect the blood, bone marrow, lymph, and lymphatic system. Because these tissues are al ...

treatment facilities. The Transforming Cancer Care project was projected to cost £155 million in total. This includes both the building and equipping of the new hospital, and refurbishing the Trust's Wirral cancer centre. It opened to inpatients on Saturday 27 June 2020 and outpatients were welcomed from Monday 29 June 2020. It has 110 fully-single en-suite patient bedrooms and five radiotherapy Linac treatment suites.

Laing O'Rourke Laing O'Rourke is a multinational construction company headquartered in Dartford, England. It was founded in 1978 by Ray O'Rourke. It is the largest privately owned construction company in the United Kingdom. History The company was founded by ...

was the main contractor.

Satellite Centres

To enable patients located to the north and east of the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it h ...

to receive more convenient access to cancer treatment, the centre operates a number of satellite centres and clinics within the

Liverpool City Region The Liverpool City Region is a combined authority area in North West England. It has six council areas: the five metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside (Liverpool, Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Knowsley, Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, St H ...

and North West.

Broadgreen Hospital

Since 2010, the centre has run a nurse-led, day case chemotherapy clinic from a dedicated unit at

Broadgreen Hospital Broadgreen Hospital is a teaching hospital in the eastern suburb of Broadgreen in the city of Liverpool, England. The hospital, alongside the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Liverpool University Dental Hospital in the city centre is part ...

. The unit treats lung, prostate and urological cancers.

Chemotherapy at home

The Trust provides some chemotherapy in patients' own homes. Specialist chemotherapy nurses from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre currently visit patients at home in certain areas of Merseyside and Cheshire to deliver

trastuzumab Trastuzumab, sold under the brand name Herceptin among others, is a monoclonal antibody used to treat breast cancer and stomach cancer. It is specifically used for cancer that is HER2 receptor positive. It may be used by itself or together ...

(Herceptin). The Trust plans to expand the service to more areas and treatments.

The Countess of Chester Hospital

The trust provides some nursing staff to the

Countess of Chester Hospital The Countess of Chester Hospital is the main National Health Service, NHS hospital for the English city of Chester and the surrounding area. It currently has 625 beds, general medical departments and a 24-hour A&E department, accident and emerge ...

, allowing breast, bowel, lung and prostate cancer patients to be given chemotherapy on Haematology & Oncology unit.

Halton General Hospital

In 2009 the centre opened a chemotherapy centre at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's Halton General Hospital site to treat breast, bowel, lung, lymphoma, prostate and urological cancers.

The Linda McCartney Centre

The

Linda McCartney Linda Louise, Lady McCartney ( Eastman; September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998) was an American photographer, musician, cookbook author, and activist. She was the keyboardist and harmony vocalist in the band Paul McCartney and Wings, Wings tha ...

Centre is located in a converted, former nursing college at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. It provides services for patients with bowel and breast cancers.

The Liverpool Women's

The trust opened a unit dedicated to chemotherapy for gynaecological cancers at the Liverpool Women's Hospital, in February 2011.

The Marina Dalglish Centre

Treating breast, bowel, urology and lung cancers, The Marina Dalglish Centre was opened in 2007, having been converted from an old special care baby unit. Although this centre is also on the Aintree Hospitals campus, it is in a separate building to the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre Liverpool, which was built at a later date.

Southport Hospital

Following a £1.3 million renovation, the centre runs a nurse-led chemotherapy delivery service from Southport Hospital's Medical Day Unit, for bowel, breast and lung cancer patients.

St Helen's Hospital

The Trust provides chemotherapy and oncology services in St Helen's Hospital.

Group companies

The Trust owns 2 subsidiary companies
PharmaC
an
PropCare
as well as a joint venture with Mater Private Healthcare
The Clatterbridge Private Clinic

Performance

It was named by the

Health Service Journal ''Health Service Journal'' (''HSJ'') is a news service that covers policy and management in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. History The '' Poor Law Officers' Journal'' was established in 1892. In 1930, it changed its name after ...

as one of the top hundred NHS trusts to work for in 2015. 92% of staff recommend it as a place for treatment and 73% recommended it as a place to work. In March 2023, it had 1,796 full-time equivalent staff and a sickness absence rate of 4.7% compared to 4.9% average across England. In 2019 the trust was rated as good by the

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care providers in England. It ...

dropping from an outstanding rating in 2017.

References

External links

Transforming Cancer Care in Merseyside and Cheshire
{{Authority control Health in Cheshire Medical and health organisations based in Merseyside NHS foundation trusts Cancer organisations based in the United Kingdom