Deal ensures leading treatment continuation

The centre, on the site of Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital, entered a specific type of PFI agreement called a “managed equipment service” contract with Varian Medical Systems in October 1997. As a result of this renewal, the Oncology Centre – which treats 1,000 patients a year and serves about 500,000 people in the south west – will now benefit from state-of-the-art treatment accessories and software upgrades, enabling clinicians to offer patients the latest in highly targeted radiotherapy treatments to combat cancer. Michael Sandhu, Varian’s director of public private partnerships, said: “Plymouth was the first hospital in the UK – and possibly the world – to pioneer this form of PFI for radiotherapy equipment. Since then, a number of other hospitals have followed suit, recognising the benefits this type of financing agreement can bring to patients. We’re delighted to continue supporting such a centre of excellence for a further seven years.” The original PFI agreement covered 15 years, with a renewal point after eight years. The renewed contract means that two of the centre’s three Varian linear accelerators will be upgraded with 120-leaf multileaf collimators for delivery of flexible and highly targeted conformal treatments, and all three will be equipped with new amorphous silicon portal imaging panels for treatment verification. The centre’s VARiS Vision information management system will also be upgraded to the latest version in January 2006.