A former senior manager at a dedicated cancer hospital has made a powerful video arguing a controversial replacement is being built in the wrong place. Dr Rosemary Fox argues the new centre, which is being built at a cost of £562m on a standalone site, needs to be located next to a major general hospital with emergency facilities.
Dr Fox was deputy director of cancer screening at Velindre University NHS Trust, later becoming the director of screening at Public Health Wales (PHW). PHW delivers the population screening programmes for Wales, including the three cancer screening programmes for breast, cervical and bowel cancer.
Dr Fox served on both Wales and UK national screening committees, and also represented the Welsh Government on the UK Department of Health’s Advisory Committee for Breast, Bowel and Cervical Screening. She retired in 2017 and was awarded an MBE for services to healthcare.
Read more: Fears widely-criticised Velindre cancer centre plans will be more expensive than expected
A video featuring Dr Fox has now been put on YouTube by the Colocate Velindre group, which opposes a plan that would see a new Velindre cancer centre built on a greenfield site known as the Northern Meadows at Whitchurch, Cardiff.
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In the video, Dr Fox states: “The people of south east Wales need a new 21st Century cancer centre. Currently preparations are underway to build the new cancer centre - but it’s in the wrong place, and that’s going to stop us from getting the real cancer centre that we need for decades to come.
“Velindre University NHS Trust is a healthcare provider and they currently have plans to build the new centre on the Northern Meadows. But the site Velindre is proposing is three miles from the nearest intensive care unit.
“The World Health Organisation has published a 120-page document called Setting Up a Cancer Centre, which makes it clear that new cancer centres must be located on the same site as a general hospital.”
Dr Fox said this made sense because any cancer treatment needs emergency care nearby in case complications arise during treatment.
She added: “People with cancer often have other medical conditions which need to be taken into account during their treatment. Having specialists on site means this can be done quickly.
“If the hospital and the cancer treatment centre aren’t on the same site, some lifesaving interventions simply won’t be able to be offered at the cancer centre and the people of south east Wales won’t easily get the treatment that they need.
“So why are Velindre NHS Trust building it so far away? We can’t really be sure. In response to a recent Freedom of Information request, no records or minutes were kept that might have given us an insight into how this decision was made.
“So local organisations can’t be sure that the cancer centre will give us the treatment needed, now or in the future.
“If this centre is to go ahead, limited treatments will be offered, so there will be no budget to provide a better thought through one in the years to come. Some people just don’t have years when it comes to cancer treatment.”
Velindre University NHS Trust backs the plan to build a stand-alone new hospital and has stated: “An ambitious, comprehensive programme to improve cancer services for the 1.5 million people across south east Wales is underway in partnership with health board colleagues across the region.
“This includes the development of the new VCC, a new cancer research partnership with Cardiff and Vale Health Board and Cardiff University and the development of a regional acute oncology service.
“It is well documented that the Nuffield Trust considered the potential for co-locating the new centre at the site of the University of Wales Hospital. Their conclusion was: ‘We explored the potential for creating VCC at University Hospital of Wales but we have concluded that full co-location will not be an option for some considerable time’.”
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