The Christie, one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, has opened its new radiotherapy centre in Oldham – reportedly the first UK facility of its kind, and aimed at providing cancer treatment closer to patients’ homes.
Built by VINCI Construction UK, the £17 million centre will enable patients across Greater Manchester who could previously only access radiotherapy at The Christie’s main, South Manchester site to, in some cases, avoid a threehour round trip for treatments. Housed on the ground floor of a new three-storey building at the Royal Oldham Hospital, it will treat up to 70 patients a day with two new £1.3 million Elekta linear accelerators. The building’s second floor will accommodate a new inpatient haematology unit operated by the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, and the third a surgical ward. The centre will initially treat breast and prostate cancers, with more, common cancers to follow. A second Christie radiotherapy centre, being built at the Salford Royal Hospital, will open in 2011.
