Top doctor speaks out against new Velindre Cancer Centre plan
Video report by ITV Wales News journalist Elen Davies
Plans to build a stand-alone cancer centre at Velindre in the north of Cardiff have sparked a heated debate among both the local and medical community.
The current plans to build the new facility near the existing Velindre hospital in Whitchurch have been approved by the Welsh Government.
But now a leading Welsh doctor has added her voice to calls for a re-think and for the centre to be built next to Wales’ biggest hospital, the University of Wales hospital at the Heath.
In her first TV interview, Dr Laura McClelland explains: “There is a promise and a reassurance to the general public and to patients that the University Hospital of Wales is just a few minutes away and this is true geographically.
"However, the reality of waiting for an ambulance and having an ambulance available and arriving at the hospital, having a handover, then transferring the patient to the critical care or the acute care site, wherever that may be, is always going to take more time.
"The average time taken is about two hours.”
At the beginning of the month, a letter was leaked, which shows a cancer advisory board suggested a stand-alone facility was the wrong approach.
The Velindre University NHS trust says all stakeholders’ views have been taken into account - and insist adequate provision is in place. But Dr Laura McClelland feels the voices of many in the medical community haven’t been heard.
“As somebody who knows what happens when patients become sick in the middle of the night and can’t get transferred to an appropriate place of care, it’s my job to speak up for them.
“It could be you or I next week and I hope somebody would speak up to protect us.”
In a short statement, the Velindre Trust said they and their partners “have considered and are in the process of addressing issues that were raised as part of their work on the new Velindre Cancer centre, and as they develop the regional model of cancer care.”
A well known Welsh harpist supports the decision to go ahead with the plans. In 2018, Catrin Finch was diagnosed with breast cancer and spent several months at Velindre’s current facility.
For her, the new centre should be built as soon as possible.
She said: “I guess the point is, at some point we just have to go ahead don’t we, you know a decision has to be made and there is always going to be a counter argument, there is always going to be a reason why the hospital shouldn’t be built on this site.”
For Catrin, time spent debating the decision is delaying the process further:
“I think people can go on fighting and arguing for years but in the case of a cancer hospital, years are what people don’t have. And for me, that’s what it’s about really, it’s already too late to develop Velindre - it needs to be done.”
The Welsh Government still backs the current plan and supporters of the scheme hope the new centre will be opening its doors in four years time.