History
North West Cancer Centre is one of the two cancer centres in Northern Ireland. It was established in 2016 and is dedicated to provide comprehensive cancer care to the North West region of Northern Ireland. It also provides a cross-border radiotherapy service to patients in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland.
Profile
The centres cancer services are situated in a purpose built facility with an extensive on-site multidisciplinary cancer team. This includes an inpatient ward with 27 beds, a chemotherapy suite with 25 chairs and 5 single treatment rooms, outpatient clinics with 16 consultation rooms and a state of the art radiotherapy service delivered via three linear accelerators and a superficial X-ray machine with the aid of advanced planning software.
The Centre has attained the following: European Healthcare Design Award 2017 and Varian Medical Systems "centre of excellence" status in 2018. It has maintained CHKS ISO 9001 accreditation since November 2018 and is currently only one of 3 departments in the U.K. to achieve UKAS MPACE BS 70000 specific Medical Physics and associated scientific services accreditation. In addition to radiotherapy, the centre provides outpatient and inpatient systemic anti-cancer therapy and specialist palliative care.
Specialities
- Breast cancer
- Lung cancer
- Upper and Lower GI cancer
- Genito-urinary: prostate, bladder, penile cancer
- Head and Neck cancer
- Non-melanoma skin cancer
- Haematological malignancies
Palliative and Supportive Care
The center is dedicated to providing comprehensive cancer care, integrating oncology and palliative care services seamlessly through regular communication and interactions. The palliative care team is available daily to review inpatient cases, along with the oncology team, to ensure that each patient receives holistic and compassionate support. This also involves working collaboratively with social workers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists in a way that promotes patient's dignity, sense of worth and independence whilst maintaining the patient's safety, rights and confidentiality. In addition to daily communication, there is a weekly multidisciplinary meeting to ensure that patients with complex needs have an agreed care plan that integrates oncological and palliative perspectives, focusing on symptom management, psychological support and quality of life alongside cancer treatments. Our palliative care team includes 3 specialist consultant in palliative medicine and 5 clinical nurse specialists, in addition to other expert consultants in palliative medicine who supervise the palliative care wards in our hospice sites in Omagh and Foyle.
Last update: September 2024
