Contractor appointed for the building of The Christie at Macclesfield

A lead contractor has been appointed to oversee the construction of a new two storey building to house the proposed Christie at Macclesfield cancer centre.

Demolition work on the site has been completed by Galliford Try and VINCI Construction UK has been appointed to deliver the construction of the new £26m cancer centre. VINCI Construction is one of the partners in Integrated Health Projects who are also the lead constructor for The Christie’s new £150m cancer research centre.

The project was initially aiming for completion in Autumn 2021, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic means that completion will be delayed until the end of 2021.

Nearby residents have been informed and, as part of the Considerate Constructors Scheme,

VINCI Construction UK has given a commitment to do everything possible to minimise disruption during the project.

The plans for the new cancer centre were approved by East Cheshire Council in September 2019 and demolition started in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 lockdown.

The Christie at Macclesfield will transform cancer care in Cheshire, the High Peak area of Derbyshire and parts of North Staffordshire, providing care closer to home for more than 1,500 existing Christie patients a year.

It will bring together essential cancer services into one purpose-built centre delivering local specialist access to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, holistic support and information services, outpatient care, palliative care and a wider range of clinical trials. Around 40,000 appointments per year will take place at the new centre.

Dr Andrew Sykes, director of clinical oncology and clinical lead for The Christie at Macclesfield, said: “Our focus for the last three months has rightly been on continuing to provide safe and effective cancer care to our patients and in supporting patients who are worried about COVID-19. But with the first wave of the pandemic now behind us, we can once again move forward with our ambitious plans for a new cancer centre in Macclesfield. The new centre will deliver cancer care to the highest Christie standards, but closer to where patients live.

“We also hope that as things start to get back to normal in our communities that fundraising for this vital project across Macclesfield and East Cheshire will pick up again. We still need to raise around £20m towards the overall cost of this project.

“Many patients currently travel to The Christie in South Manchester for their appointments, with long journey times putting tremendous pressure on patients and their families at an already stressful time.”

Planning for the new centre has taken into account East Cheshire’s ageing population and the predicted increase in demand for specialist cancer services in future years. Patients identified as being frail will receive additional support.

Work on the cancer centre is expected to be completed by the end of 2021, ready for patients in 2022.

For details of how you can support The Christie Cancer Centre at Macclesfield fundraising appeal, go to www.christies.org/macclesfield

The Christie charity supports the work of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust providing enhanced services over and above what the NHS funds. This includes money for care and treatment, research, education and extra patient services. Gifts from the public make a huge difference to the care and treatment that The Christie is able to provide to patients and their families.

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust was the first specialist trust to be rated as ‘Outstanding’ twice (in 2016 and 2018) by the health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It referred to The Christie as ‘a leader in cancer care’ and ‘a pioneer in developing innovative solutions to cancer care.’ The CQC praised the Trust’s staff which it said ‘go the extra mile to meet the needs of patients and their families’ and that they were ‘exceptionally kind and caring.’ In 2017, the CQC rated The Christie as the best specialist trust in the country, and one of the top three trusts overall in England.

About The Christie

• The Christie opened in 1901 and is now one of Europe’s leading cancer centres and the largest single-site centre in Europe 
• We are the largest radiotherapy provider in the NHS. We are also the largest provider in Europe, with one in 20 radiotherapy treatments delivered at The Christie. We are one of only two cancer centres worldwide to offer both MR-linac and high energy proton beam therapy (the other is MD Anderson in Texas, US).
• The Christie delivers chemotherapy treatment through the largest chemotherapy unit in the UK, as well as via 12 other sites, a mobile chemotherapy unit and in patients’ homes.
• The Christie is a specialist tertiary surgical centre concentrating on rare cancers, specialist procedures and multidisciplinary cancer surgery. It is one of the largest HIPEC centres in western Europe and one of only two in the UK to provide this treatment for appendiceal and colorectal tumours. It also has one of the largest robotic centres in the UK and the largest complex pelvic cancer team in the UK.
• The Christie is one of Europe's experimental cancer medicine centres and an international leader in research and development with around 650 clinical studies ongoing at any one time. The NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility at The Christie provides a high quality, dedicated clinical research environment for our patients to participate in trials.

·         The Christie charity is currently fundraising for some vital new projects including a new cancer centre in Macclesfield providing care closer to home, refurbishment of our CT scanning department with an improved environment and the latest 4D CT technology, and with our partners at The University of Manchester and Cancer Research UK, plan to build a new world class transformational research facility to replace the Paterson building. Find out more at www.christies.org/the-christie-charity/why-we-need-your-help/what-we-are-fundraising-for

·         The Christie has one of the largest hospital charities in the UK with 81p in every pound raised going directly to the patients. We work hard to make sure that the money donated to us is spent where the hospital needs it most and we produce a separate Impact Report which gives more detail about how the charitable income is spent and the difference it has made to our patients and their families.

·         We have achieved a phenomenal amount thanks to the backing of our donors. In the past five years, our charity has helped to fund a purpose built teenage and young adult unit integrated with a haematology and transplant inpatient ward, a new Integrated Procedures Unit, a proton beam therapy research room, a state of the art MR-linac machine, a new gamma camera and new outreach services. Read more at www.christies.org/the-christie-charity/why-we-need-your-help/how-youve-helped/

• In 2018/19, The Christie charity was supported by 7,175 sporting event participants, 4,426 donations from individuals, 1,083 corporate fundraisers, 57 charitable trusts, 251 people who left a legacy, 1,720 donations in memory of a loved one and 1,050 community events.
• Supporters can find out how to donate and make a payment at  www.christies.org/the-christie-charity/donate/make-a-donation/