We will be an ambitious, outward-looking partner, using collaboration to redesign cancer care rather than simply sustain it.

Building on our leadership of the Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance, the Cheshire and Merseyside Diagnostic Programme, the North West Radiotherapy Clinical Network and the North West Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Clinical Network, we will work across organisational and geographical boundaries to improve outcomes, reduce inequalities, accelerate innovation and strengthen service resilience. 

We will deepen collaboration with the other specialist cancer centre in the North West so that, together, we can lead improvements in cancer services for all our communities.

We will use collaboration to transform pathways – working with our commissioners and partners across primary care, community services, the voluntary sector, acute providers, universities and system leaders – to create more seamless, equitable and sustainable models of care.

We will also work with people who use our services, carers, communities and voluntary sector organisations as partners in improvement, ensuring that collaboration is shaped by lived experience as well as clinical and operational expertise.

Our ambition over the next five years is to revolutionise cancer follow-up pathways through collaboration with primary care partners. We will enable patient-initiated follow-up with swift access back to the cancer centre when needed and the development of ‘straight to test’ routes. These initiatives will ensure patients are referred with the appropriate diagnostic tests already completed, supporting timely decisions and better access to care.

We will strengthen our role in Liverpool and across the North West by aligning improvement, research, workforce and digital transformation with partners who share our ambition to deliver world-class cancer services at scale.

By collaborating with purpose and consistency, we will improve outcomes, reduce unwarranted variation, strengthen equity of access, accelerate innovation and build a stronger and more resilient cancer system for the future.

Your VOICE at CCC

VOICE is our new patient and carer partnership forum, where we can listen and learn from people’s experiences of cancer care at CCC. 

VOICE is about Valuing Our Individual Carer and Patient Experiences.

Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance (CMCA)

As host of the Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance (CMCA), and with our Chief Executive as CMCA’s Senior Responsible Officer, we will use our system leadership role to drive a step-change in cancer outcomes across Cheshire and Merseyside. 

Working across primary, community, acute, diagnostic and voluntary sector partners, we will lead a more integrated, equitable and high-performing cancer system – reducing unwarranted variation, improving timely diagnosis and treatment, strengthening urgent cancer care, and ensuring every person receives the right care, in the right place, regardless of where they live or are treated.

We will:

  • Lead the transformation of urgent cancer pathways across Cheshire and Merseyside through the Urgent Cancer Care Board, creating a consistent, best-practice model that improves outcomes locally and has the potential to influence national standards.
  • Redesign clinical decision unit (CDU), urgent and emergency care (UEC) and same day emergency care (SDEC) pathways so that more cancer patients receive rapid, specialist assessment and treatment outside emergency departments, reducing avoidable admissions and improving consistency, safety and experience.
  • Drive measurable improvement in cancer performance across the system, supporting all partners to meet cancer waiting time standards and deliver faster diagnosis, treatment and access in line with the ambitions of the National Cancer Plan.
  • Strengthen collaboration between CMCA, the Cheshire and Merseyside Provider Collaborative (CMPC) and Diagnostic Programme teams to accelerate pathway improvement, improve diagnostic access and patient experience, and reduce variation irrespective of where a patient lives, is diagnosed or receives treatment.
  • Target underserved populations with data-led, community-based interventions, working with third sector organisations, primary care and community teams to close gaps in access, experience and outcomes.
  • Develop a comprehensive, accessible directory of prehabilitation, rehabilitation and supportive care, enabling patients and professionals to connect quickly to dietetic, psychological, occupational and wider holistic support across primary, community and secondary care.
  • Embed frailty-attuned cancer care as a system-wide standard through the Cheshire and Merseyside Frailty in Cancer Programme, implementing assessment and management guidance so that treatment decisions, care planning and support are better tailored to individual need.

Frailty and cancer care 

Cancer treatment can take a toll on the body. Frailty scoring is a recognised way of checking how physically robust someone is. Measuring people’s frailty before, during and after cancer treatment means we can provide them with the right care and support.  

NHS partners in Cheshire and Merseyside

We recognise the importance of working in partnership with commissioners and providers. We are committed to strengthening our role as an innovative and collaborative system partner within Cheshire and Merseyside over the next five years.

We will:

  • Proactively champion the operational excellence of the Cheshire and Merseyside Provider Collaborative (CMPC).
  • Expand and enhance the Diagnostic Programme, ensuring unparalleled access to timely diagnostic services across Cheshire and Merseyside.
  • Transform Paddington Community Diagnostic Centre into a pioneering regional hub, guaranteeing diagnostics for all patients, eliminating backlogs, and setting new standards for timely care.
  • Strengthen vulnerable cancer services within the healthcare system to ensure long-term sustainability, including pioneering the development of a world-class hub-and-spoke model for blood cancer care within the region.
  • Accelerate collaboration with system partners to establish an integrated, digitally empowered care model that ensures secure, seamless access to critical patient information essential for the delivery of safe high-quality care.
  • Launch groundbreaking joint ventures with external partners to drive system-wide innovation and provide unrivalled expertise in specialised fields such as cybersecurity.
  • Lead transformative cybersecurity strategies for the Integrated Care Board (ICB) through Cheshire and Merseyside Provider Collaborative (CMPC).
  • Spearhead the optimisation of drug expenditure, maximising value and impact across the system.

Clinical networks

We will maintain active involvement with the North West Radiotherapy Network across the region’s three radiotherapy providers (7.2 million people, 20,000 patients, 200,000 fractions per annum). 

The network is committed to strengthening collaboration, driving innovation and supporting quality improvement to make care delivery easier for radiotherapy professionals and better for patients. 

To achieve this, it delivers a wide range of workstreams through its two core programmes of work: 

  • Transformation and Improvement
  • Research and Innovation

We will maintain active involvement with the North West Teenage and Young Adult (TYA) Network aiming to:

  • Strengthen readiness, equity and access to children and young people (CYP) / teenage and young adult (TYA) genomic testing and tissue banking.
  • Improve transparency, quality and consistency across regional TYA cancer pathways, improving whole pathways for rare cancers.
  • Increase access to research and trial opportunities across all providers.
  • Improve continuity and experience when moving between paediatric, TYA and adult services.
  • Embed clear accessible information and strengthen system-wide engagement.
  • Build specialist capability and sustainable skills across the region.

Cheshire and Merseyside Diagnostics Programme

We will continue to host the Cheshire and Merseyside Diagnostics Programme, having delivered some of the lowest waiting times in England for patients over recent years. It is regarded as one of the strongest overarching transformation programmes nationally.

We will continue to host and support the programme to:

  • Ensure waiting times for all diagnostic tests are better than the national standards.
  • Embed strategic plans to deliver optimised, standardised care across all providers for interventional radiology, pathology, genomics and phlebotomy.
  • Enhance patient and clinician experience with unified digital and innovative solutions including AI and point of care testing.
  • Deliver best value for money by driving up productivity and efficiency.
  • Ensure that all CDCs including Paddington provide ‘straight to test’ solutions.

‘Straight to test’ diagnostics

‘Straight to test’ pathways mean patients can be referred for tests without first needing an outpatient appointment. People have their tests and get the results more quickly than if they need to have a hospital appointment first.

Other partners

We will continue to strengthen our collaborations with local universities and other partners, recognising the value these relationships bring for the people of Liverpool and the wider region in research, education, employment and innovation.

We will:

  • Actively pursue new partnerships that create greater value for patients and the organisation, including with NHS and cancer services in North Wales, where this helps to build a more sustainable and resilient model of care.
  • Work with partners to procure, build and implement a shared Electronic Patient Record. This will improve clinical handover, support more seamless outreach, strengthen information sharing, streamline workflows and support decision-making. Together, these improvements will make care safer, improve communication and enhance people’s experience of care.
  • Work with other cancer care providers across the North West to:
    • Ensure all patients across the region benefit from best-practice models developed at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.
    • Develop a workforce model that is sustainable and fit for the future.
    • Support vulnerable services in areas beyond Cheshire and Merseyside where this adds value to the wider system.
    • Develop an aseptic services model that addresses challenges across the North West.
  • Continue to broaden the services provided by Clatterbridge Private Clinic, our private care joint venture with The Mater Private. This will help to reduce pressure on the NHS, generate additional income that we will reinvest in NHS services, and expand access to treatments that may not yet be routinely available through the NHS.

Use of our subsidiaries

We have two subsidiary companies that bring important benefits to the NHS by supporting collaboration, enabling economies of scale and providing efficient ways of working:

  • Clatterbridge Pharmacy Ltd (trading as PharmaC)
  • Clatterbridge PropCare Services Ltd (trading as PropCare)

We will continue to use these arrangements thoughtfully and transparently so that their benefits can be shared collaboratively across Cheshire and Merseyside and beyond.