The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust

Our Ambicare service for people who need intensive chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and related blood cancers is helping patients avoid the need to stay in hospital for weeks at a time. Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive blood cancer that usually develops very quickly and affects white blood cells. Both AML and the chemotherapy used to treat it can severely affect people’s immune systems, leaving them vulnerable to infection. Treatment usually involves patients staying in hospital for long periods while they have intensive chemotherapy and allow their immune systems to start recovering. But thanks to our Ambicare (ambulatory care) service, they can come into hospital as day patients for their treatment and then go home, where they are closely monitored by their hospital team. Patients can get immediate help from their hospital team if they become unwell, need urgent cancer care or have any concerns. It’s transformed life for patients like Bill, Aaron and Catherine, who have all appreciated being able to spend more time at home and less time in hospital. They feel it has benefited their wellbeing and helped them cope with their treatment. Dr Muhammad Saif, a Consultant Haemato-Oncologist at Clatterbridge, said: “People with AML can suddenly become very unwell because their immune systems are so weakened. Traditionally, they stayed in hospital to receive transfusion support, reduce infection risk and in case they needed urgent care for infection and other complications that can happen after intensive chemotherapy but we know that long hospital stays aren’t necessarily that good for people. “Our Ambicare service offers the best of both worlds. Patients don’t have to stay in hospital overnight but they are very closely monitored at home with regular blood tests and monitoring calls from their hospital team. They also have rapid access to urgent specialist cancer care if needed. We can bring them straight into hospital for urgent assessment and treatment.” We are now working on plans to extend the Ambicare service to a wider range of patients having intensive chemotherapy. Find out more and read the full story via the link in our comments.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is one of the only hospitals in England to offer CAR T-cell therapy (also known as CAR-T), an innovative form of immunotherapy. The treatment has been available at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool since December 2024. Before then, patients had to travel to other parts of the country for it. Sharon Smith, from Liverpool, has had CAR-T therapy for her acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and is delighted that this pioneering treatment is now available in Cheshire and Merseyside. She had hoped to be one of the first people to have CAR-T in Liverpool but, as her cancer was very aggressive, she needed treatment straight away – it would not have been safe to wait a few weeks. She ended up being one of the final patients who had to travel to another region for CAR-T. Sharon said: ““CAR-T treatment is fantastic and something I’d really recommend but having to travel to another region for it was very tiring. The team at Clatterbridge are just amazing – I can’t praise them enough – and it will make a world of difference for people to be able to have this treatment so much closer to home. It would have been fantastic if I could have had it in Liverpool but they weren’t starting it here until a few weeks later and my consultant explained I needed it sooner than that. I’m delighted it’s now available in Liverpool.” Read Sharon’s story via the link in the replies.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance are finalists in more national awards for their partnership working to improve urgent cancer care. The urgent cancer care programme has been shortlisted in two categories of the Picker Experience National (PEN) Awards 2025: • Cancer Experience of Care Award, and the • Partnership Working to Improve the Experience Award Urgent cancer care is part of most people's cancer journey. People with cancer who go to an emergency department (ED) are four times more likely to be admitted to hospital than someone without cancer, even if an acute hospital might not be the best setting for them. That's why the Cheshire and Merseyside urgent cancer programme has been looking at how urgent and emergency care can be improved for people with cancer, and make sure people get the right care in the right place at the right time. Doing this also improves urgent and emergency care for everyone else, including hospital staff. The programme was developed at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and is now led and project-managed by Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance. Clatterbridge staff are still very involved and our Chief Executive Joan Spencer chairs the Urgent Cancer Care Programme Board. The programme includes partners from across Cheshire and Merseyside such as acute trusts and primary care. Key achievements include: • Reducing cancer patient attendance at emergency departments (ED) by increasing referrals into more suitable alternatives such as same day emergency care (SDEC) and urgent community response (UCR). • Enhancing The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre's Hotline service including triage, reducing waiting times, and signposting patients to ED alternatives such as SDEC and UCR. • Transforming acute oncology with new data capture tools. • Significantly improving the pathways for patients with suspected or diagnosed metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC) • Significantly improving the brain / malignancy of unknown origin (MUO) pathway Entries linked to the urgent cancer programme have also been shortlisted for five Nursing Times Awards 2025. Chief Executive Joan Spencer said: “The teams at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance and our urgent cancer care partners across the system have put a huge amount of work into improving pathways for people with cancer who need urgent and emergency cancer care, and they are delivering fantastic results. It's great to see all that work recognised by being shortlisted for the PEN Awards, as well as a number of other awards this year.” The team will find out if they have won at the PEN Awards ceremony in Birmingham on Thursday 2 October 2025.

Resident Doctors are due to take industrial action from today (Friday 25th July) until 7am on Wednesday 30th July 2025. Please attend your appointment with us as usual unless we contact you to say otherwise. If you need to access care during this time: • Our Hotline team is available 24/7 – including strike days – on 0800 169 5555 for anyone who is currently being treated at CCC or who completed treatment in the last six weeks and who needs urgent care or advice (e.g. due to treatment side-effects). Please note the hotline is for unwell patients only and not for appointment queries. • For general health advice and queries visit https://orlo.uk/B1tlx or call 111.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre's pioneering metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC) service has been singled out for praise in the NICE - National Institute for Health and Care Excellence annual report for 2024/25. We are the only hospital in the UK with a dedicated specialist MSCC service offering emergency diagnosis and treatment seven days a week. Our model helped to shape the new NICE guidelines that were published in 2023, based on evidence from our patients showing what an enormous difference it makes to patients' outcomes. Metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC) is a serious medical emergency that can develop when cancer spreads to the spine and puts pressure on the spinal cord. Without rapid diagnosis and treatment - usually within 24 hours - this can cause permanent damage and patients can become paralysed or lose control of bodily functions. Our specialist team are available from 7:30am to 8:00pm seven days a week, offering clinical advice, diagnosis and treatment. Healthcare professionals in other hospitals or primary care can contact the team for expert advice and assessment of any patients who have a suspected or diagnosed MSCC. Patients who need further care such as emergency radiotherapy to reduce the pressure on the spinal cord are brought to CCC-Liverpool for this and then go back to their referring trust or home. The NICE Annual Report 2024/25 highlights our award-winning MSCC service as a case study showing how providers are improving care in line with NICE guidelines. NICE drew on evidence from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre that showed an enormous improvement in mortality and clinical outcomes for MSCC patients since we introduced this new service in 2017. MSCC Service Lead Kate Lacey was also part of the expert advisory panel that helped to produce the new NICE guidelines in 2023. You can read the entry about our MSCC service on page 25 of the NICE Annual Report. https://orlo.uk/v8nik

We are delighted to announce that Dr Caroline Brammer has been appointed Interim Medical Director of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust with effect from Monday 4 August 2025 following a formal recruitment process. Caroline is currently our Associate Medical Director for Radiation Services. She is also a practising Consultant Clinical Oncologist specialising in head and neck cancer with clinics at our Aintree, Liverpool and Wirral sites. Caroline joined the Trust in 2013 and played a key role in helping to shape plans and the clinical model for the new Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool, which opened in June 2020. She studied in Sheffield and completed her specialist training in the East Midlands and Yorkshire, as well as spending a year in New Zealand as an oncology registrar. It was during her final year as a medical student in Sheffield that she really became interested in oncology, thanks to a seminar about early research into the possibility identifying cancer genes and developing treatments that would target them. Caroline had been a Consultant Clinical Oncologist in Wolverhampton for 14 years before joining The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in 2013, initially as Clinical Director for Integrated Care. Her achievements here include establishing our Clinical Decisions Unit providing urgent assessment and emergency cancer care in 2018. She will succeed our current Medical Director Dr Sheena Khanduri, who is leaving the Trust at the end of July to become Chief Medical Officer of a specialist oncology company. Chief Executive Joan Spencer said: “Caroline is a superb clinician and a skilled and effective clinical leader who is committed to excellent patient care. I am really delighted to be welcoming her to the executive team as our new Medical Director and look forward to working with her in her new role.” Dr Caroline Brammer said: “The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is a strong performer delivering really high-quality tertiary cancer care and we want to maintain that. At the same time, there is more we can do with our health and social care partners to look at the whole cancer pathway and the care people receive pre-diagnosis. I am excited to be taking on this role and continuing Sheena’s great work.”

Great to see our Innovations Manager Simon Bunting presenting about the amazing culture of innovation at CCC - which is leading to staff and patients alike bringing forward ideas to improve treatment and care across the Trust - and beyond. If your organisation wants to learn how to empower your workforce to innovate, our Innovation Team can deliver bespoke innovation workshops to your colleagues. For more information, contact ccf-tr.innovation@nhs.net

The Biobank is one of the jewels in the crown of research at Clatterbridge – providing a vital link between patients and researchers. The Biobank team collects and preserves bodily fluids and tissues donated by Clatterbridge patients, staff, volunteers and others for use in research. Each sample donated is contributing to this medical progress – unlocking tomorrow’s cancer cures. Watch the video for more info: https://orlo.uk/ijd0a

We are delighted to announce that Jo Bowden has been appointed Interim Director of Finance at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre following a formal recruitment process. Jo was previously our Deputy Director of Finance and had been Acting Director of Finance since 1st July 2025, following the departure of James Thomson. Jo trained with the Audit Commission and qualified as an accountant in 1999. She has experience across the public sector including the NHS, education, local authority, and police, fire and probation. Jo joined the NHS in 2005 and set up Mersey Internal Audit Agency's (MIAA) Manchester office. In 2008, she moved to Salford Primary Care Trust as a project accountant managing change programmes including the opening of five new health centres. She helped to set up NHS Property Services' Manchester office in 2012 before moving to Health Education England in 2015 as National Head of Financial Services. Since February 2021, Jo has also been a director of Clatterbridge Pharmacy Ltd (trading as PharmaC), our wholly-owned community pharmacy company. Her most recent achievements include establishing the PharmaC logistics service and negotiating the contract for PharmaC to take over from Lloyds Pharmacy at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT). Jo holds both CIPFA and CIMA accountancy qualifications. Chief Executive Joan Spencer said: "Jo has a fantastic depth and breadth of financial expertise and experience. She is also hugely knowledgeable about our services, income and costs and how to manage them wisely to deliver the best for our patients. I am delighted she has been appointed Director of Finance and very much look forward to working with her in her new role.” Speaking of her appointment, Jo said: “Our mission at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is to drive improved experience and outcomes for people with cancer, and we can only do that if we manage our finances really well. I know how important the care we provide is, and the difference it makes. I’m thrilled to have been appointed to this role and my priority will be continuing the great work that James did as Director of Finance, and making sure we can continue to deliver the very best for patients with the funding we receive.”

🎨 Our fantastic arts programme, which supports the wellbeing of our patients and staff, will receive a boost thanks to new national guidance. 🎼 The National Arts in Hospitals Network (NAHN) has launched the first comprehensive web-based guidance for establishing and managing hospital arts programmes across the UK. The guidance was developed with the support of The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. Arts programmes offer the opportunity for patients, families, staff and stakeholders to enjoy in creative activities including art, poetry and music, within healthcare settings. Arts programmes are important for supporting patient care and delivery, as well as enhancing the wellbeing of patients and making visiting and staying in hospital that bit easier. Read more on our website via the link in the comments.