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Cancer centres that could treat 3,500 patients a month gather dust

Rutherford Cancer Centre North East - Facebook
Rutherford Cancer Centre North East - Facebook

World-class cancer centres that could treat 3,500 patients a month have been shut up for six months despite waiting lists being at record levels.

The Rutherford Health Group went into liquidation in June, forcing the closure of cancer centres in Newport, Liverpool, Northumbria and Reading.

Assets were handed to London-based asset management firm Equitix to find a buyer, but despite four bidders the company has not responded to offers.

Oncologist Professor Karol Sikora, who helped found Rutherford Health said it was a scandal that the centres were standing empty during the ongoing NHS cancer crisis.

Before the closures, half of those treated at the centres were NHS patients.

Rutherford Cancer Centre South Wales - Facebook
Rutherford Cancer Centre South Wales - Facebook

“What galls me, is that at a time of the biggest backlog in NHS history, we are stuck with these empty buildings which could be up and running again within weeks,” Prof Sikora told The Telegraph.

“It would be easy to get going again, we have cancer doctors and nurses who are just twiddling their thumbs.

“We have two capital funds who are ready and willing to make the investment but we can’t get Equitix to get moving. They seem to want to do a deal with the NHS but that is never going to happen because the NHS simply doesn’t have the money.”

‘Cancer catastrophe’ faces NHS

Experts have warned that the NHS is facing a “cancer catastrophe” with the National Audit Office estimating that up to 740,000 potential cases which should have been urgently referred by GPs have been “missed” since the first lockdown.

The charity Macmillan Cancer Support has also calculated almost 50,000 people who should have been diagnosed 18 months ago remain to have not had a diagnosis.

Many patients are now facing worse outcomes because their cancer will have progressed to a point where it is more difficult to treat. Excess cancer deaths have now started to show in the weekly death figures.

Even before the pandemic, Britain was languishing at the bottom of international league tables, with the lowest survival rates for five in seven common cancers, according to the World Health Organisation.

Experts predict that at current treatment rates, it could be five years before the NHS catches up with cancer cases missed in the pandemic.

‘Scandalous’

The Rutherford centres, which cost £240 million to set up, offered a range of cancer treatments including radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, as well as proton beam therapy which is less harmful for patients and currently has only limited availability on the NHS.

The centres were also geared up to carry out diagnostic scans, like MRIs and CTs.

“Funds and staff are in place to reopen in weeks,” added Prof Sikora.

“Having four world-class cancer centres empty during the worst cancer crisis of my lifetime is scandalous.”

Under NHS England targets, 85 per cent of cancer patients should start treatment within two months of an urgent referral from their GP.

However currently figures show only about 60 per cent of patients are being treated in that time frame.

The Telegraph contacted Equitix who had not replied at the time of publication.