Construction has started of a new £5 million Cancer Care Centre and Pathology Essential Services Laboratory (CCC-ESL) at Wigan’s Royal Albert Edward Infirmary.
Being developed by Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) in partnership with The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Macmillan Cancer Support, and Salford Royal Foundation Trust, the Centre will feature purpose-built clinical accommodation, 12 chemotherapy treatment patient areas, counselling facilities, a complementary therapy suite, and a Macmillan Information and Support facility. As part of the national ‘Chemotherapy Closer to Home’ initiative, the Cancer Care Centre plans to develop a joint service with The Christie to undertake certain chemotherapy treatments currently provided at its Manchester site – to improve services for chemotherapy patients by reducing the burden of travelling to Manchester, sometimes weekly. A major part of WWL’s £70 million investment programme to redevelop and improve its three hospital sites – Wrightington Hospital, Leigh Infirmary, and Royal Albert Edward Infirmary (see also HEJ – October 2013) – the new facility should open this September. The build and design quality of the WWL NHS Foundation Trust’s new £6.8 million Hanover Diagnostic and Treatment Centre at Leigh Infirmary, which opened last May (HEJ – October 2013), has, meanwhile, been recognised with the building’s winning of the 2013 Building Better Healthcare Award for ‘Best Use of Existing Estate’.
