Our cancer patients will benefit from the country’s first Varian Halcyon radiotherapy machine, which will be treating our patients from Wednesday 18 October.

We’re one of the first trusts in the world to introduce this new technology for our patients, which will cut treatment times while still delivering state-of-the-art cancer care, and is much more comfortable for patients.

Sherif Raouf, our Trust’s Divisional Director for Cancer and Clinical Services, said: “I’m delighted that our Trust is the first in the UK, and one of the first in the world, to benefit from this technology, it will make a huge difference to our cancer patients.

“To have the most up-to-date technology in cancer care is important to us; however, the experience of our patients is also important. The Halcyon system will allow us to offer high quality, high speed, fully image-guided radiotherapy in a more patient-centred way.”

Our former cancer patient Sara Turle, who was treated at Queen’s Hospital when she was diagnosed with cancer seven years ago and is now a passionate patient partner for us, was among the first to see the new machine, she said:

“Being diagnosed with cancer is the worst possible stage in your life. What made all the difference for me was the wonderful, caring staff who looked after me at Queen’s Hospital.

“You want to know you’ve got the best in your corner, so to have the staff, as well as this incredible machine, well, it’s like gold dust. I had daily radiotherapy for five weeks, and you get a bit anxious, so it’s comforting to see such a patient-friendly machine with additional safety features like fully-image guided radiotherapy, it’s wonderful.”

The Halcyon halves treatment times while still delivering the same level of radiotherapy treatment, meaning our Trust, which has one of the busiest oncology departments in the country, will be able to treat more patients and reduce waiting times while also being more cost-effective.

Benefits include:

• Improved comfort for patients such as; shorter treatment times, a lower couch making it easier to get onto, a less enclosed feel and the machine is quieter when delivering treatment
• More accurate and safer for patients – all treatments are fully image-guided
• Easier for staff to use
• Delivers state-of-the-art radiotherapy treatment
• Smaller, more integrated machine, allowing better use of space
• More streamlined care; older machines require over 30 steps from start to end of treatment whereas the Halcyon has just nine.

Sherif added: “We’ve been really excited about the machine being operational, and hope that the first patients to be treated will have an enhanced experience. The Halcyon is an important part of our ongoing commitment to providing excellent care.”

The Halcyon was designed by Varian Medical Systems. UK and Ireland Sales Director, Adele Lyons, said: “We’re pleased BHRUT is one of the first trusts in the world to order this new system and that staff will be able to take advantage of its many features to continue to deliver high quality care to their patients.

“The goal with the Halcyon was to design a treatment system that expands the availability of high quality cancer care globally and help save the lives of millions more cancer patients.”

It is part of a complete overhaul of our Radiotherapy department which began last year with the installation of a state-of-the-art radiotherapy specific CT scanner, officially opened by tennis star Pat Cash in September.

A second Varian Halcyon will be installed at Queen’s Hospital in 2018. A further radiotherapy machine, a Varian True Beam, will be delivered to Queen’s Hospital in February 2018. The £1.7m cost has been covered thanks to a bid to NHS England’s Radiotherapy Modernisation Fund.