North London Cancer Network

The Thames region treats over 20% of all children in the UK with malignant disease but the provision of diagnostic and sub-specialist cancer services for children and young people does not map to geography in the same way as those for adults. The Review of services by the London Specialised Commissioning Group concluded that there should be two main centres for paediatric malignancy in Thames. The North London Centre would comprise UCLH and GOSH, with UCLH concentrating on older children and providing sub-specialist radiotherapy and care for children with bone tumours. The South London Centre would comprise the Royal Marsden in Sutton, Surrey and St George’s Hospital. The Royal London and St Bartholomew’s Hospitals closed to sub-specialist oncology, a change that is undergoing a formal scrutiny process at present. This means that the North London Centre attracts patients from Networks other than the North London Cancer Network, indeed only a minority come from the NLCN. Because of the small numbers of patients, diagnostic and therapeutic expertise is concentrated in these the North and South Centres.

At the end of the year the NLCN Paediatric Tumour Board welcomed representatives from hospitals not included in the geographical boundaries of the NLCN to allow the Board to be used as a method of communication between the North London Centre and these hospitals. Representatives from Northwick Park Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital and the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital have expressed interest so far and the list is expected to grow in 2007.

There is also great expertise in shared care in the Thames region and the majority of patients have noncomplex chemotherapy and supportive care delivered close to home. The future of shared care units depends on the results of the Healthy Starts, Healthy Futures initiative which remains ongoing and is impeding further planning.