Anew radiography skills centre was officially opened in September in London, backed by equipment donated by Varian Medical Systems. The Saad Centre for Radiography Clinical Skills Education will provide a major boost in training future radiotherapy radiographers.
Michael Sandhu, Varian’s European director of public/private partnerships, said: “This new centre will be a major resource in training radiotherapy radiographers of the future and we are proud to support such a vital and worthwhile project. More trained radiographers mean more staff to run the additional treatment machines acquired in the UK in recent years, and this will greatly benefit the country’s cancer patients in the future.”
Jennifer Edie, head of radiography at The City University, London said: “The range and sophistication of these facilities mean that our radiography courses are more practical than ever, fully equipping all graduates for the world of work and taking the strain off busy hospital staff.”
The Saad Centre plans to dramatically increase its radiography research and offer more training and development opportunities to students and practicing radiographers across the UK and worldwide. The centre also benefits from having close links with the department of radiography’s radiation laboratory, which is dedicated to researching the interactions between radiation and different body tissues.
The new facility comes on the back of significant recent Government investment in radiotherapy equipment. Over the last three years, the UK Government’s Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) has announced major radiotherapy investments in a series of waves. More than 100 new linear accelerators have been acquired as part of the Cancer Plan and Varian has been selected to provide two-thirds of all machines ordered.
As its contribution to the project, Varian has donated ten Eclipse treatment planning systems (TPS). Eclipse is the world’s most popular radiotherapy TPS, enabling oncologists to plan advanced treatments using the latest radiotherapy techniques such as image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).
