About the consultation
The future of children’s cancer services is changing as NHS England (London and South East regions) is reviewing where a Principal Treatment Centre for children’s cancer services should be located.
The two options that have been consulted on are St George’s – where the service has been co-located for more than 25 years – and the Evelina London.
You can read more from NHS England on why there is a need for change here.
The consultation took place between Tuesday 26 September and Monday 18 December 2023.
The initial consultation feedback report was published on 31 January and can be read here.
Why St George’s?
A childhood cancer diagnosis is devastating. Parents need to know their children are in the best possible hands and that there is support available.
That’s exactly what you get here at St George’s, where we’ve been providing specialist children’s cancer care for more than 25 years.
Last year, our children’s cancer service treated more than 170 young patients living with cancer across South London, Kent and Medway, Surrey, Sussex and beyond.
Closing our service and moving it elsewhere will have a knock-on effect on our other children’s services – of which we treat 130,000 children every year and have one of the largest paediatric surgery services in the UK.
We believe Kids Deserve St George’s.
And we’ve heard the same from families of children with cancer receiving care at St George’s.
They’ve told us that they want their kids to continue to get cancer care here because:
- We provide outstanding care
- We have caring and experienced staff
- Our location means you don’t need to use public transport to reach us
- Our brand-new state-of-the-art children’s cancer centre is ready to build and offers dedicated parking and accommodation facilities to minimise travel challenges
- We care about research as we collaborate with the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden to treat children with cancer today and in the future.
Emma van Klaveren Finlay’s daughter Floriana was treated at St George’s, she said:
“Caring for someone with cancer is a 24/7 job and the slightest thing means you have to leg it to the hospital – a raised temperature could mean sepsis.
“You can’t easily drive to central London and you can’t take an immunosuppressed child on the tube, so it would have really added to the stress and expense.
“I will be completely devastated if this change goes ahead because you never know with cancer – it may come back. I’ve been spreading the word but it’s worrying that not many people seem to know about this.”
Link to Wandsworth Council’s magazine: Brightside for full story on page 11: Brightside July 2023 issue 200 (wandsworth.gov.uk)
