Amethyst Radiotherapy is committed to public-private partnerships. Here’s a look at how we work with the NHS to provide world-leading brain tumour treatment.
On 5th July, the National Health Service (NHS) celebrated its 77th anniversary. Since its inception in 1948, it has provided vital healthcare that is free at point of use to millions of UK citizens. While it continues to deliver essential care to millions, it now faces growing pressure from limited budgets, rising demand and workforce shortages.
While still delivering world leading healthcare, the NHS is under huge pressure from stretched budgets, rising demand, ageing populations, and staff shortages. These challenges are particularly acute when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of rare and complex conditions such as brain tumours.
These cases require specialist consultants, multidisciplinary teams and advanced diagnostics and equipment. In today’s NHS, this means that collaboration is playing an increasingly important role. This is why Amethyst Radiotherapy is committed to strengthening its public-private partnerships as part of a long-term strategy.
Here’s a look at how we work together with the NHS to provide world-leading brain tumour treatment.
Brain tumours account for just three per cent of all cancers but, according to the Brain Tumour Charity, just one per cent of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to brain tumours since records began in 2002.
This means that the NHS often lacks the specialist knowledge and resources to diagnose and treat brain tumours in a timely manner, or to put in place the most effective treatment pathways for individual patients.
Because they affect relatively few people, GPs can misdiagnose symptoms of brain tumours, leading to the loss of potentially life-extending treatment time. There is also a disparity in access to the best quality care around the UK. Some hospitals may lack staff with experience and expertise in rarer types of tumour, and treatment options are limited.
This is why Amethyst Radiotherapy is committed to working with the NHS to provide first-class care for patients with brain tumours and other neurological conditions at its centres of excellence in Queen Square, London, and Thornbury in Sheffield.
The Queen Square Radiosurgery Centre is part of the The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), which is the UK’s largest dedicated neurological and neurosurgical hospital. It is a major international Centre of Excellence for Neuroscience teaching, training, and research.
The NHNN is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The Radiosurgery Centre was established in 2012, and became part of the Amethyst Group in 2020.
The combination of specialist technology such as Gamma Knife provided by Amethyst, and the long-standing expertise of the NHNN, results in first class care for rare and complex neurological conditions.
The Thornbury Radiosurgery Centre is located within Circle Health Group Thornbury Hospital in Sheffield, and treats both private and NHS patients. Along with Queen Square, it is one of just two National Centres of Excellence in the UK providing specialist treatment for rare and complex neurological conditions.
Gamma Knife surgery is a non-invasive form of stereotactic radiosurgery that doesn’t involve making any incisions with a knife. Instead, it delivers precise gamma radiation to a targeted area of the brain. This destroys the abnormal cells while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue.
It’s used to treat some types of brain tumours, vascular malformations and nerve conditions. These can include metastatic, cancerous or benign tumours; arteriovenous malformations (AVMs); trigeminal neuralgia, and acoustic neuromas.
Amethyst is committed to widening access to excellent healthcare for cancer and complex conditions across Europe and beyond through collaboration with public healthcare systems.
In an era when rapid medical advancements are being made and all public healthcare systems are facing limited budgets, higher patient demand, and more complex illnesses, PPPs can ensure that patients continue to have equal and timely access to the best care available.
The expertise, experience and infrastructure of the NHS, combined with the innovation, leading edge technology, and funding of private groups is helping the healthcare system adapt to the needs of the 21st century.
If you would like to find out more about our brain tumour treatment sites at Queen Square in London or Thornbury in Sheffield, please get in touch with the team today.
Centres of Excellence for Stereotactic Radiosurgery treatment of complex Brain Tumours
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