Nearly £2 million to be spent on modernising radiotherapy care

The Kent Oncology Centre at Maidstone has secured a £1.8 million grant to modernise its radiotherapy care.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS is among the first trusts to receive a tranche of the £130m being made available by NHS England to update radiotherapy care.

Maidstone Hospital will replace one of its linear accelerators with a TruBeam machine that can track and target ‘moving’ tumours, whose position can vary during treatment, with greater accuracy.

The increased accuracy allows higher doses of X-rays to be administered to the target, reducing side-effects such as skin soreness, hair loss, nausea and swallowing problems as well as reducing damage to healthy tissue.

The funding was announced by Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, at the Britain Against Cancer conference in London.

The modernisation programme is described as the biggest upgrade to NHS cancer treatment in 15 years.

Jim Lusby, deputy chief executive at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, said: “We are delighted by this funding announcement from NHS England, which is a massive boost to our Kent Oncology Centre and will ensure we continue to provide optimum treatment, care and support to cancer patients.”

David Fitzgerald, general manager for cancer and haematology, described the funding as “a big step forward for Kent oncology”.

He said: “It will allow us to continue to deliver the most advanced radiotherapy treatments to the population of Kent, Medway and East Sussex.”

About four in 10 of all NHS cancer patients are treated with radiotherapy, which typically uses high-energy radiation from a linear accelerator. Radiotherapy is one of the three main cancer treatments, alongside cancer surgery and chemotherapy.

The Kent Oncology Centre, in Hermitage Lane, sees more than 300 new patients every month and cares for a population of 1.8 million people.