A letter to the editor of the South Wales Echo published on 4 August 2020
Dear letters,
In his open letter, Dr Ashley Roberts, Consultant Interventional Radiologist at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, describes a stand-alone cancer centre such as the one proposed by Velindre as an ‘archaic model’.
21st century cancer care is linked to a larger, acute hospital – such as UHW – where all aspects of care are available on the same site.
Why therefore is Velindre proposing to spend £210m of public money on a concept that is outdated long before it is even built?
The proposed access road will cost a further £27m of public money – a jaw-droppingly disproportionate price tag for a civil engineering project of this scale.
Serious questions need to be asked of Velindre, and their insistence on pursuing a model that will not deliver the 21st century cancer services the people of south Wales deserve. Their choice of action is even more perplexing given that UHW has offered them space within their forthcoming rebuild.
It’s high time the Welsh Government intervened.
Nerys Lloyd-Pierce
Chair, Cardiff Civic Society
