Planners give green light to new cancer centre at Cromer Hospital

Plans for a new cancer care and support centre at Cromer and District Hospital have been approved.

North Norfolk District Council rubberstamped the proposals – developed by Macmillan Cancer Support and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – for the North Norfolk Macmillan Centre.

The decision paves the way for preliminary works, involving the refurbishment and extension of the hospital’s disused Davison Unit, to start.

The centre will enable patients, many of whom currently travel to Norwich, to have their treatment and access support services closer to home.

The North Norfolk Macmillan Centre will include:

• Six chemotherapy treatment chairs with capacity to treat up to 36 patients a day.
• Three new clinic rooms and two new minor procedure rooms, creating an additional 10,000 outpatient appointments annually.
• A Macmillan cancer information and support centre.
• The new unit will also free up space in the main Cromer Hospital building to deliver an extra 600 surgical procedures in dermatology, urology, vascular surgery and pain management.

The number of people living with cancer is growing and predicted to rise from 2.5million today to four million by 2030 in Norfolk, around 6,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year. There are approximately 35,300 people living with cancer in the county.

Gwyneth Tyler, Macmillan Head of Services for South and East England, said: “It is great to see that this fantastic project has cleared another important hurdle and we are getting ever closer to our goal of being able to improve cancer care for many people in North Norfolk.

“At Macmillan, we are entirely reliant on public donations and that support is what enables us to be there for people living with cancer. The building of this centre is only possible because of people’s generosity and I look forward to seeing it take shape over the coming months.”

Simon Hackwell, Director of Strategy at NNUH, said: “This is great news for our patients in North Norfolk to receive planning permission for this development, which will expand our services at Cromer Hospital.”

“This is a fantastic opportunity to deliver more treatments and appointments closer to home for patients in North Norfolk and is an important part of our plans to increase capacity for cancer treatment and other outpatient services at Cromer.”

Currently, Cromer Hospital provides a range of acute out-patient and day case services and has a minor injuries unit.