Guy's Cancer to me means the very best in cancer care delivered by world-leading
clinical teams allied to cutting-edge research and all delivered in an
uplifting environment has been designed by patients for patients.
To have been listened to and and this is the result,
you know, I just find it overwhelming actually.
To be part of the making of it, you know, and creating of it, that is impressive
Everything we do and all the decisions we've made about the way the Cancer Centre runs
has been made with the patients in mind to make this is
stress-free journey as possible.
When I come into this building I get an amazing feeling that
it's bright and light, it's welcoming. So sometimes when people are not at
their very best and they come in here, they're going to be lifted.
There's such an exciting
variety of art the Cancer Centre, right from the moment that you walk into the building.
And for patients it can improve recovery it can reduce stress, it can even help you find
your way around the building.
So we've done away with floor number and instead we have Villages
So if you're coming for chemotherapy you're going to the
Chemotherapy Village, if you're going for Radiotherapy you go to the Radiotherapy Village.
We make it as simple as possible so there's no anxiety around finding the right Department.
We have six brand-new radiotherapy machines in the Cancer Centre.
They allow us to give more accurate treatment so fewer healthy cells
are damaged and in some cases they allow us to give stronger doses. So our treatments
are faster and safer. The whole environment is much better for our patients .
Patients told us that going to the basement for their radiotherapy treatment
wasn't ideal. We're the first centre in Europe to have radiotherapy above ground
level in response to what they told us.
I think the Cancer Centre is a really super
environment for a patient. In the Cancer Centre we have state-of-the-art
imaging which means that we can really fulfill that aspiration of a world-class service.
We're now seeing over six and a half thousand patients every year, and that
number will continue to grow. We need to be able to offer them the highest
quality of cancer treatment. In order to deliver world-class cancer treatment
you need to have a combination of high quality clinical care, a great patient
experience but also high-quality scientific research which underpins new treatments .
What really excites me about the Centre the bringing together of our
research along with our clinical treatment and that brings together a whole series
of different skills the doctors and nurses, scientists together in one place.
It just makes our research more efficient. It means that we can deliver
new treatments in the clinic much more effectively.
Having research and clinical trials in the same building as treatment makes a
real difference. It improves the patient experience, we're just upstairs if
they need as we can pop down and answer any questions they might have, from a first
consultation with the doctor or if they just nip into ask us something.
We're always on hand for them.
It's not just about medical treatment.
Patients with cancer need lots of other support too. At the Cancer Centre we have a rehabilitation
gym for patients in the recovery phase, we have a shop style fitting room for
patients to get expert advice on wigs and head scarves.
We also have Dimbleby Cancer Care who provide a fantastic service to patients.
When I lost all my hair,
I didn't have any hair and I wasn't feeling particularly wonderful about myself,
I was able to go on a feel-good makeup makeover and they showed you how to,
reinvent myself actually, so yeah it was really really good!
Dimbleby Cancer Care offers a range of services including benefits advice and support,
talking therapies for individuals, families, couples as well as group therapy programmes.
We also offer complementary therapy
and we also have an information support service that's
led by a team of specialist nurses.
We're looking at the whole patient journey.
We're looking at diagnosis and making sure we get that done quickly and
accurately, we're looking at offering the best treatments possible but recognising
that patients have needs that go beyond just their cancer diagnosis and
supporting all the way through their treatments and beyond.
Working in Cancer Centre is great because it just brings everybody together, it's such a nice
environment to work in. It's so light and bright and airy and it's a much nicer
place for the patients to be, nicer place the staff to work, so it's great.
People treat you with respect, they treat you like you're normal
because sometimes you go through one of the worst things here
but people treat you with dignity.
People will make you feel good and that's quite infectious really at
the end of the day, and it rubs off.
So to come have your treatment is just really amazing.