The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust has acquired the formerly privately-run Rutherford Cancer Centre in Liverpool, providing the trust with additional state-of-the-art capacity and the local population with earlier access to vital diagnostic services.
Health law firm Hill Dickinson has advised The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre on the acquisition of the former Rutherford Cancer Centre in Paddington Village in a deal that will create a new, first-class, NHS diagnostics facility in the heart of the city’s Knowledge Quarter.
The community diagnostic centre (CDC) will be owned and operated by The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside. Once open, it will provide additional health testing capacity for conditions including musculoskeletal problems, cancer, cardiac issues and gastrointestinal disease.
Robert McGough and Richard Hartis of Hill Dickinson’s healthcare team advised Clatterbridge on the acquisition.
Robert McGough, who is head of Health Commercial and a partner in the firm, said:
“The opportunity for The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre to acquire the Rutherford facility from the receivers came about relatively quickly and we were pleased to secure a successful outcome for our client in a very short space of time.
“The opening of the new Paddington Village CDC later this year will provide a level of local access to diagnostic tests that is above the European average, so it’s excellent news for the system too.”
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside has been at the forefront in rolling out CDCs as part of a national NHS England programme supported by government funding. It launched the first CDC nationally in St Helens and there are now six CDCs in the region (Ellesmere Port, Liverpool, Northwich, Southport, St Helens and Wirral), with a further three – including Paddington Village CDC – due to open in the next six months.
Paddington Village CDC will be the second such venture for The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre following the opening in 2021 of one of the country’s first community diagnostics centres – Clatterbridge Diagnostics in Wirral – in partnership with Wirral University Teaching Hospital.
