The Christie Proton Beam Therapy Centre
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Location: Manchester
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Sector: Health
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Division: Regional Building, Engineering
We delivered the UK’s first NHS high energy
Proton Beam Therapy Centre in the North West.
Scope of project
The Christie Foundation Trust was selected by the Department of Health as one of two providers of the Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) service, together with University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Although procured at the same time, The Christie chose to deliver the construction phase through the Procure 21 framework. This speed to site procurement route means that from 2018, patients have benefited from local access to this advanced treatment at The Christie.
The state of the art 15,000 m2 five storey building provides: three treatment rooms; a patient reception; consultation rooms and public space. The building is designed to be future proofed, with additional space for the Trust to grow into along with a dedicated research room for the University of Manchester.
PBT is an advanced form of radiotherapy used for the treatment of complex and hard-to-treat cancers in children and adults. It uses a high energy beam of protons rather than high energy X-rays to deliver a dose of radiotherapy. It directs the radiation treatment to precisely where it is needed with minimal damage to surrounding tissue.
At the centre of the facility is the cyclotron – manufactured in Germany and transported by sea. The machine has been named “Emmeline” after Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the British Suffragette movement, who hailed from Manchester.
The cyclotron feeds three treatment gantries, huge machines that rotate around the patients in the treatment room to best target the tumour. Only one gantry can be used at a time whilst patients are prepped in the other two rooms.
What makes this facility unique is the fourth gantry, which will be used for research and development to ensure The Christie maintains its international reputation as leading experts in cancer care, research and education.
The building’s list of technical features is almost as extraordinary as proton beam treatment itself.
To contain the radiation, the concrete walls are up to six metres thick. The building incorporates 20,000m³ of concrete & 1,700 tonnes of reinforcement, including steel bars up to 100mm diameter. Through this, 10km of services pipework has been carefully threaded. The concrete itself weighs 48,000 tonnes, the equivalent of two aircraft carriers.
To meet the building’s demanding energy needs, a new sub-station was built, which provides an equivalent amount of power to that needed to run the nearby Trafford Industrial Park.
The building is the first PBT Centre to target BREEAM excellent rating and reclaiming heat from the Proton Beam equipment will make a significant contribution to the BREEAM scoring.
The new Proton Beam Therapy project built on our relationship with The Christie. Construction partners for over 10 years, we are committed to further collaborative working to deliver future projects.
Improved patient outcomes and patient journeys are the values that underpin our culture. The Christie was awarded outstanding status by the Care Quality Commission inspection in 2017 and given the accolade of being the country’s leading specialist Trust.
The building started treating patients in the autumn of 2018 and now treats around 750 people a year. This life changing facility will not only save lives, but also prevent families from enduring expensive, stressful and potentially dangerous travel abroad for treatment.
Though there are other centres internationally which offer this treatment, this is unique being the first high energy NHS facility in the UK. We worked with colleagues overseas, bringing the benefit of international expertise and learning to the UK, overcoming many challenges to deliver this world class facility.
Our partners
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Structural Engineer: ARUP
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Architect: HKS