Health Camden: Cancer patients | American style | hospital hotel | £100m | UCL | Mark Emberton | NHS

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Camden New Journal - HEALTH by TOM FOOT
Published: 14 May 2009

Artist’s impression of the centre to be built on the former Elizabeth Garrett Anderson site

Cancer patients’
American-style ‘hospital hotel’

£100m centre will follow ‘healthier’ US model by grouping patients according to cancer type

CANCER patients in Camden will be treated using the latest scientific research and in a specialist centre based on an American model of care.
University College London Hospital’s £100 million cancer centre is expected to open on the site of the former Elizabeth Garrett Anderson hospital site in Huntley Street in 2012.
Its design – more hotel than hospital – has followed more than four years of research by UCLH into why patients in the United States live longer than in this country.
They found that new-style specialist cancer centres, where patients are grouped together based on different types of cancer, were part of the solution.
Mark Emberton, UCLH clinical director for cancer services, said: “This is really going to transform cancer treatment for patients. While it won’t find a cure, it will help stop cancers developing into a chronic disease. We will have the latest diagnostic treatments and technology. The floors will be designated to cope with the unique needs of different kinds of patients to make them feel more comfortable.
“What we are trying to do is abolish waiting. We want to use technology and electronic scheduling to keep patients up to date. There will be a healing garden on the top floor.”
Clinicians in the centre will work with scientists in the Cancer Research Centre in the University College London (UCL) Cancer Institute. The links between university and hospital are part of wider healthcare reforms aiming to speed-up the transition of lab research onto hospital wards.
Mr Emberton, 47, who is also a reader in interventional oncology at UCL, said: “The centre concentrates on every detail of the patients’ journey: from details like the furniture and the environment, to giving patients the opportunity to take part in leading-edge clinical trials, this centre will completely redefine the way patients are treated on a day case basis. The centre will enable us to be recognised as one of the top cancer centres in Europe.”
He added that while the centre would be the “focal point” for a patient’s treatment, some follow-up treatment will be provided GPs and treatment centres nearer to patients’ homes.
Carbon emissions are expected to be cut by a third and the development includes both a green roof and photovoltaic panels for on-site energy generation.
Cllr Andrew Marshall, lead member for planning at Camden Council, said: “A £100 million investment in Camden is a fantastic boost for health and for jobs. We know that cancer is a major public health challenge in the borough, this Centre is part of the fightback. The NHS in Camden is taking a major step ahead of rest of the UK in the scale of our commitment to reducing cancer deaths.”

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