The Christie Charity
Establishing a centre of excellence in radiation oncology
In 2017, a partnership was established between Cork University Hospital (CUH) and The Christie. Through the identification of key service priorities within the National Cancer Strategy for Ireland and its consequent funding, CUH was given a unique opportunity to fundamentally change how radiation therapy services could be delivered at the hospital.
The CUH team sought to establish state-of-the-art radiation therapy techniques within its new buildings. The team recognised that in order to become a leading cancer centre, securing sufficient expert staff with access to training and academic opportunities would be fundamental to success.
The Christie supported this project for 3 years, led by Professor Nick Slevin, formerly an expert clinical advisor to The Christie International and chair of NHS England’s national Radiotherapy Clinical Reference Group. It has provided:
- reciprocal visits,
- mentorship of technical and clinical staff,
- sharing best practice guidelines and protocols,
- advice around quality assurance and accreditation,
- support to recruitment of key staff,
- support for staff and patient engagement,
- and communication of project milestones.
You can watch a video below of Professor Nick Slevin talking about the success of this partnership.
What our partners said
“As Cork University Hospital continues to evolve with the potential to become a “great” hospital, the collaboration with The Christie has helped us to challenge ourselves about our performance but more importantly serve to differentiate Cork University Hospital from other Irish hospitals by benchmarking our performance against the best performers internationally.”
- Tony McNamara, CEO (1992-2019), Cork University Hospital
“It was a pleasure working with The Christie as we developed and opened a large new radiation oncology centre in Cork University Hospital. With a growing department, evolving to introduce new techniques and new technology, it was important to have an objective, external partner bring their expertise in training and mentorship to the project. The aim is to maintain these clinical and academic links between the teams and their respective institutions into the future.”
- Dr. Jerome Coffey MD FRCPI FRCR FFRRCSI, Director, National Cancer Control Programme, Ireland
To find out how The Christie International could support your organisation, contact us at the-christie.international@nhs.net or phone us on +44 (0)161 446 3000.