King’s Health Partners awarded Comprehensive Cancer Centre status

Cancer at King’s Health Partners has received a prestigious European accreditation in recognition of excellence in patient care, research and training.

The Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) partnership has been awarded Comprehensive Cancer Centre status by the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI). The OECI brings together cancer care and research organisations in Europe to support the sharing of knowledge and information, delivery of new and better cancer treatments and improved quality of life for patients. King’s Health Partners becomes only the third organisation in the country to be given the globally respected title.

OECI accreditation is measured against a range of internationally accepted quality and performance standards and is a reflection of the strength and breadth of cancer delivery across the AHSC. The award of Comprehensive Cancer Centre status will take place next spring at the OECI General Assembly in Brussels. It follows an intensive three year process involving a wide range of staff across the partnership during which quality of care and performance metrics were assessed.  A two day formal peer review visit took place in September 2014 to formally assess partner institutions across the tripartite domains of clinical care, research and training.

Collectively, King’s Health Partners is the largest provider of cancer services in London and one of the largest in England. Between the partners - King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts - the full spectrum of clinical cancer care, pioneering research and excellent training is provided across our sites.

A new state of the art Cancer Centre at Guy’s Hospital, due to open in Autumn 2016, will provide high quality care for over 7,500 new patients each year. Patient care is supported by teams of researchers who carry out pioneering studies to help improve the prevention, detection and treatment of a wide variety of cancers. They influence global cancer policy and international research, conduct innovative clinical trials and produce over 500 publications annually.

Professor Arnie Purushotham, Director of King's Health Partners Cancer Centre says:

This award demonstrates our commitment to delivering the best possible care and treatment for our patients and making real advances in cancer research. A huge amount of hard work went into the accreditation process and all our partners have made a valuable contribution. We must keep building on our success to make sure we are able to deliver consistent world class cancer care and improve outcomes for our patients.

Professor Sir Robert Lechler, Executive Director of King’s Health Partners says:

This is a major achievement for King’s Health Partners, and deserved recognition for the hard work of colleagues and teams across our partnership. We are committed to consistently delivering world class care and research to improve outcomes for patients and this accreditation is a significant step on that journey.

Notes

• King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering collaboration between King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts. We translate cutting-edge research into excellent patient care through world-class education and training. For more information, visit http://www.kingshealthpartners.org. 

• Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital from part of the London Cancer Alliance. For more information, visit http://www.londoncanceralliance.nhs.uk/ 

• Cancer is one of the eight major research themes of our National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR BRC) at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. King’s Health Partners has two NIHR BRCs at the heart of our partnership. 

• The integration of mental and physical health is central to all King’s Health Partners cancer programmes to ensure that patients are supported with both the emotional and physical effects of their disease. 

• The Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI) is a quality assessment and improvement programme for cancer institutes with an established accreditation system for benchmarking the performance of these institutes using qualitative and quantitative criteria. The main objectives of the OECI are to improve communication and collaborative activities between European cancer centres. These goals are achieved by promoting and strengthening Comprehensive Cancer Centres in Europe to reduce cancer incidence and mortality, and supporting cancer patients. The OECI accreditation programme is based on the OECI standards and a peer review system. For more information visit http://www.oeci.eu/