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Plans to build a new specialist cancer centre in Liverpool are moving forward.
The proposals have been praised by patients, the public and local authorities in the region, according to the Liverpool Express.
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust wants to develop a new hospital providing expert care and carrying out research and clinical trials on the same site as the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the University of Liverpool.
Services would also continue at its current sites in Wirral and Aintree and its chemotherapy and outpatient clinics in hospitals across the region. The Wirral site could continue to care for round 90 per cent of patients who live nearby, however inpatient beds and the most complex care would move from to Liverpool where there would be on-site access to intensive care and other key specialties.
In Wirral, 78% of people supported the vision and 71% said the proposals would achieve it. In Cheshire West and Chester, 82% supported the vision and 74% said the proposals would achieve it.
Proposals for the new hospital have also received unanimous approval from the Joint Health Scrutiny Committee for Cheshire and Merseyside, which was established by the region’s local authorities to consider whether the new hospital was in the best interests of people's health.
The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre will now develop an outline business case, which it expects will be approved in summer 2015. A full business case will follow a year later, enabling building work to start in 2016.
(CD/MH)
