The last of six linear accelerators has been delivered and installed at the £160 million new Cancer Centre at Guy’s Hospital.
The final ‘linac’ was craned into place on the Centre’s second floor on 12 March. A crane and a canti deck platform into a second floor window were used due to the units’ weight; each weighs 10.5 tonnes.
Designed by architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Stantec, built by Laing O’Rourke, and with Arup providing integrated design engineering services, the new Cancer Centre makes the hospital reportedly Europe’s first to locate its radiotherapy treatment facilities above ground.
Catherine Zeliotis, healthcare leader at Stantec, and clinical lead for the Cancer Centre, said: “Patients didn’t want to feel they were being sent down to the dungeon; now, when waiting for treatment, they will get good views, be able to walk onto the balcony, and see daylight. Conventionally, all high-spec medical equipment would have been housed in the basement. The linacs, imaging machines, and associated room infrastructure, are heavy, and have incredibly stringent radiation shielding and vibration regulations, most easily met at or below ground level.
“Additionally, although heavy, in all the linacs weigh under 1% of the combined weight of the radiation shielding, meaning that the new Cancer Centre weighs more than its near neighbour, The Shard. The shielding design has essentially taken the form of six adjoining ‘cubes’ supported two floors up on stilts, with each machine centred within a cube.”
