The Christie charity
The team of 53 staff has been recruited and are ready to welcome patients to The Christie’s new £26m cancer centre in Macclesfield from 13 December.
Covering a wide range of clinical and non clinical disciplines, the team features 4 consultants, 9 nurses, 18 radiotherapists, 3 engineers, 2 specialist nurse practitioners, 10 admin staff and health care assistants, a physicist, an information centre co-ordinator, complementary therapists, and (from January) a regular fundraiser to staff the new charity centre.
Some staff are transferring over from East Cheshire NHS Trust and some are transferring from The Christie’s other sites in Withington, Salford and Oldham. Several have been recruited specifically for the new centre.
The Christie at Macclesfield team is to be headed up by radiographer James McGovern (34) from Altrincham. He currently works at The Christie’s Withington site but has also worked at The Christie’s local radiotherapy centres in both Oldham and Salford.
Born in the North East and brought up in Whitby, James was inspired to become a radiographer by his mum, Elaine, who was a diagnostic radiographer. His first job was at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. 2 years later he relocated to The Christie at Oldham, just as that centre was opening and the first time The Christie had provided radiotherapy away from its Withington site.
James’s role as centre manager and principal radiographer for The Christie at Macclesfield is to manage the day to day service in radiotherapy, including the radiotherapy treatments and CT scans of patients. He is the most senior member of staff working at the new centre and will coordinate patient care with lead staff from other clinical disciplines including the chemotherapy unit, outpatients and haematology. He will also work closely with the operational lead at the centre to oversee the smooth running of all patient services at the new site.
James said: “I am excited that we have recruited such a strong team for The Christie at Macclesfield, and I know that every single employee is committed to delivering the best possible patient care. This is the first radiotherapy centre in Cheshire and the first time The Christie has been able to provide a holistic local radiotherapy centre that also provides chemotherapy, outpatient appointments and other important types of patient care and treatment at the same place other than our Withington site.
“The Christie has the largest radiotherapy treatment service in Europe and The Christie at Macclesfield will provide world class radiotherapy treatments including stereotactic ablative radiotherapy which delivers very high dose radiotherapy to a small tumour site and surface guided radiotherapy which uses laser technology to track a patient’s position very accurately in three dimensions. We also have a radiotherapy specific CT scanner with all the latest technology.”
The operational lead for The Christie at Macclesfield is Catherine Fensom (46), a nurse from Bramhall with more than 20 years of experience.
Her role involves ensuring that all the clinics run smoothly and working with the radiotherapy and chemotherapy teams to ensure that patients don’t have to wait long to be seen. Catherine has also played a key role in supporting existing patients and staff to make a smooth transition from the current cancer unit at Macclesfield into the new Christie cancer centre.
Catherine said: “I am passionate about providing treatment closer to home for patients and I am humbled to have been chosen as the operational lead to build on and improve cancer services in Macclesfield through The Christie at Macclesfield.
“This new unit will have an enormous impact on the local community providing state of the art treatment on their doorstep. Having worked for both The Christie and East Cheshire Hospital Trust, I feel that I can bring a unique perspective to this role. Patients can be confident that they are receiving the best treatments available in cancer care.”
Funded through £23m from The Christie charity, this new centre will transform cancer care not just in East Cheshire but in the rest of the county, North Staffordshire and the High Peak area of Derbyshire.
The Christie at Macclesfield will provide care closer to home for 1,500 patients a year – that’s 46,000 patient visits a year.
The cancer centre will provide a range of holistic services including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapies, haematology treatments, outpatient care, nurse led clinics, counselling services, an information centre, palliative care and a wider range of clinical trials.
To help support The Christie charity funding for The Christie at Macclesfield, visit The Christie at Macclesfield campaign page on our charity website or call our team on 0161 446 3988.
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.