New Cancer Hospital Will Treat Many Southport Patients

Many Southport cancer patients will be treated at a far more convenient and ‘state of the art’ major new hospital in Liverpool from next month.

The £162 million new Clatterbridge Cancer Centre will be a space dedicated to caring for people with cancer while the other North West’s hospitals battle the pandemic. So the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside will be able to resume its normal clinical activity for caring with people with cancer, especially for those who are already at risk if they contract coronavirus.

The new hospital is next to the controversial new Royal Liverpool Hospital which is battling to get open after the collapse of a Private Finance Initiative negotiated with ‘Carillon’ by the last Labour government. Carrillon collapsed leaving many contractors unpaid and work on the hospital stopped for many months.

The new cancer hospital has 110 fully-single en-suite patient bedrooms. This alone reduces the risk of coronavirus spreading within the facility but there are also special isolation facilities for patients whose immune systems mean they are particularly vulnerable to infection. The hospital will also have state-of-the-art facilities for bone marrow transplant, diagnostics and imaging, as well as outpatients, daycase treatments, a Teenage & Young Adult Unit, clinical therapies, and a wide range of cancer information and support.

Dr Liz Bishop, chief executive of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, said that the hospital was needed now “more than ever”.

“Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool is the culmination of an eight-year vision for transforming cancer care in a region with one of the highest rates of cancer in the country.”

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust will continue to provide specialist cancer care at its existing sites in Wirral, Aintree, acute hospitals across the region and in the community when the new hospital opens.