Welsh cancer care to get a boost

Author: Emma Dukes – Glenigan public sector expert

First Minister Carwyn Jones backs plans to provide the most state-of-the-art Velindre CANCER CENTRE in Whitchurch Cardiff.  The construction could cost in excess of £200m, which excludes the big ticket equipment cost.

An outline planning application could be submitted as early as the beginning of February 2017, with an innovative form of a PPP contract  going to market via OJEU, during H2 2017, post submitting a Prior Information Notice.

A separate public-funded ‘enabling works’ contract will also go to market next year, to be completed prior to the PPP contract reaching financial close in order to facilitate dedicated construction phase access and to bring utilities to the new site boundaries.

The new Velindre Cancer Centre is a well-resourced scheme. It has an established Programme Management Office and the infrastructure elements are being led by individuals with a significant track-record of delivery of major PPP healthcare schemes.  Mott MacDonald Group Ltd providing the main technical advice working with architects Hassell from Cardiff. 

Legal advice comes from DLA Piper UK LLP and the corporate financial advice from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

This exciting project would provide a massive uplift to Wales’ standing in the cancer research world, and what a huge prize that would be, with the new centre currently planning to be operational by H1 2022.

Velindre Cancer Centre is one of the 10 largest cancer centres in the UK and provides specialist non-surgical cancer services to more than 1.5 million people in the South East Wales region and also other regions in Wales.

Mr Dennis O’Keeffe, an experienced Infrastructure Programme Director currently at Velindre NHS Trust, said ‘personally I believe this to be one of the most deliverable high profile and exciting programmes within the NHS at the moment’.

For more information on this exciting project, see Glenigan project ID 16228645.