Groups divided over location for proposed new £180m cancer centre in Whitchurch
CAMPAIGNERS are anxiously awaiting the outcome of a review into the new £180m Velindre Cancer Centre.
The new centre, which is due to open in 2024, will be built to the north of the current Velindre Road site in Whitchurch and will be able to treat 8,500 patients and offer 160,000 appointments per year.
But some local residents have formed a group because they are opposed to the site being built on the Northern Meadows area, while another group has been set up to back the current plans.
Opponents of the plan received a boost in September when 57 health professionals who believe the centre should be located alongside an existing hospital, rather than on the Whitchurch site, wrote to Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething calling for an independent review.
Both campaign groups are eagerly awaiting the outcome of what are expected to be three planning applications regarding the site and a review of the plan by the independent health think tank, The Nuffield Trust – commissioned in September as a result of the medics’ intervention.
One planning application, due to be determined by Cardiff Council, involves a temporary access road to allow machinery and trucks to access the site during construction, which is due to start in 2022.
The other two involve dealing with various conditions that were set when the centre was granted planning permission in 2018.
Velindre University NHS Trust, which runs the centre, has asked The Nuffield Trust for advice on the proposed model for delivering cancer care and the decision to develop the Northern Meadows site.
Save the Northern Meadows supports a new Velindre Cancer Centre being built, but does not believe that the Northern Meadows is the right site.
Their campaign, which began earlier this year, is based on environmental concerns and more than 250 people attended a rally in June to protest against the potential destruction of a green area.
STNM campaigner Catherine Lewis, who lives on the Hollybush Estate in Whitchurch, supports the green argument and also understands the medical case for concentrating services on one site made in the letter to the Health Minister.
She is a former patient of Velindre, where she received chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment, although the majority of her care was at Llandough Breast Cancer and The Heath Hospital.
Mrs Lewis said: “Cancer treatment happens on many sites, so it makes sense to me that it would be better to have these things on a single site.
“But the Northern Meadows are the only outside space for people living on the estate and are valuable as a pathway for Hollybush residents to access ASDA, the canal and the Taff Trail.
“Being able to access outdoor space and be in nature has been really important in my recovery.”
In August, a Facebook group in support of the proposed development on the Northern Meadows, Supporters of the New Velindre Cancer Centre, was set up. It has 22,500 members, many of whom have been involved in fundraising for Velindre.
Natasha Hamilton-Ash, an organiser of Supporters of the New Velindre Cancer Centre, said: “There are 22,500 supporters of the new build in Whitchurch in our group and we all cannot wait for the build to start.
“This is an issue for the whole of South-East Wales, not just some local residents. The land is private health board-owned and is not a public amenity.
“There is plenty more green space to be found locally on the Taff Trail, Forest Farm and all of the other local green space.
“We have raised over £3,500 for Velindre in the last few weeks and so many inspirational stories come from our group members. It’s heartwarming that everyone might be fighting their own battles, but we fully back Velindre’s plans.”
The supporters’ group claims the signatories to the Minister’s letter were not all cancer specialists and the Whitchurch plan has the backing of experts from local health boards who have been working on the project for the last 10 years.
Wayne Griffiths, who has been an ambassador for Velindre for seven years, is also a member of the supporters’ group.
He is a trustee of the Rhian Griffiths Forget Me Not Fund, which was set up in memory of his daughter who died in 2012 after a two-year battle with cervical cancer. The fund has raised £570,000 for Velindre.
Mr Griffiths said: “We’ve got an opportunity in Wales to have a world-class cancer centre. These plans for it have been 10 years in the making. That’s a hell of a period of time over which there’s been so much consultation with the public and with other hospital boards.
“I’m a massive conservationist. I believe in the preservation of wildlife but we’ve got to be pragmatic. When you’ve got the opportunity for a world-class centre being built for the public of South Wales, not just Cardiff, we mustn’t lose out.
“Ten years ago, my daughter became ill. I was at Velindre as a dad over the two-year battle that my daughter had with cancer, but also I started seeing how wonderful the staff were and trying their best. It didn’t work with Rhian, devastatingly, but I’ve been seeing the developments and it’s a passion, and I want to help.”
Clinical backing for Save the Northern Meadows
The Save the Northern Meadows campaign was founded to protect green space in Whitchurch, but members of the group and a local councillor believe their arguments have been overtaken by the medics’ call to integrate cancer services elsewhere.
Whitchurch and Tongwnlais councillor Mia Rees said: “There’s been concern amongst the clinicians who believe that cancer services need to be integrated with wider hospital care because you don’t want to be moving people around different places.
“Those clinicians basically want it all on one site, they want it built-in with the wider Heath Hospital site because they feel that plot would be right. They’re not happy and they’re not comfortable and they’ve described it as unsafe and outdated.
“Those arguments have completely overtaken the environmental arguments made by the initial campaign, which was focused on saving the Northern Meadows as a green space for the public.”
STNM member Chris Marshall agreed that the medical arguments provided the best way for the group to win their battle.
He said: “There is a big question to be answered by Velindre as to why they were ploughing on with this project when quite a lot of people within the NHS in Wales don’t agree that it’s the right model of clinical care for cancer treatment.
“It would seem to make a lot more sense to have the centre as part of a general hospital, or much closer to one so if patients need additional care, treatment or surgery it’s on-hand, rather than having to transfer them across Cardiff.
“If the medical argument for building on there is flawed, which is what’s been written by some of the clinicians, then that certainly seems to be the strongest possibility for us turning things around.”
Although Velindre has commissioned the Nuffield Trust review – which has a strict scope and is not a wholescale review of the project – Councillor Rees would prefer a Welsh Government review instead.
“If they’re doing a thorough, rounded review, they should be speaking to everybody on all the different sides of the clinical argument,” she said.
“I think it’ll be really interesting to see what happens with the Nuffield Review but I am very concerned that Velindre will say: ‘You asked for a full clinical review, and this is what we’ve given you’.”
Professor Donna Mead, Chair of Velindre NHS Trust, spoke of the integrity of the Nuffield Trust and highlighted that no serious incidents have been reported as a result of delays in transferring patients from the current site to another hospital in the last five years.
Prof Mead added: “The highly respected Nuffield Trust will assess proposals for the way cancer services are delivered across south east Wales together with concerns.
“Velindre Cancer Centre has a proud 60-year record of delivering cancer services for patients across South East Wales in partnership with Local Health Boards.”
