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Radiotherapy Networks were established in 2019. There are eleven radiotherapy Networks covering every NHS radiotherapy provider across England.
The aim for radiotherapy Networks is to allow more service users to benefit from innovative technology, to improve treatment outcomes, and to enhance
patient experience. Radiotherapy Networks work towards meeting the Service Specification, which can be downloaded below.
Operational-Delivery-Networks-for-External-Beam-Radiotherapy-Services-adults (pdf)
DownloadWe aim to:
* Improve access across the Network to modern, advanced, and innovative radiotherapy techniques and support equipment replacement.
* Ensure treatments are available as close to home as possible, while ensuring the appropriate expertise are in place.
* Reduce variation in equipment utilisation, subject to workforce availability.
We aim to:
* Ensure that patients have access to skilled, experienced, multi-professional teams who can provide holistic care.
* Provide high quality patient information.
* Collaborate with patients and carers to improve radiotherapy services in the Network.
We want to increase participation in radiotherapy clinical trials, helping to develop new treatments and drive the development of clinical services.
We aim to ensure a joined-up plan is in place to make the most of the current workforce, through skills development and approaches that enable people to ‘work at top of their license’. We will also plan activities to recruit and train the radiotherapy workforce for the future.
We aim to:
* Develop, agree, and adopt standardised best practice radiotherapy treatment protocols. This will support the improvement of patient outcomes, including reducing mortality and morbidity from adverse side effects.
*Use national Quality Improvement Toolkits and ProKnow audit data (where available) to support improvements in radiotherapy planning.
The Network Oversight Group (NOG) is operationally responsible to the East of England Cancer Alliance. The group provides leadership, clinical expertise, advice, and support to the radiotherapy centres and network members (Clinical Oncologists, Therapeutic Radiographers, and Clinical Scientists).
The East of England Cancer Alliance aims to bring about improvements in patient experience and cancer care outcomes across the East of England region.
The network is commissioned (funded) by Specialised Commissioning
The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is the host of the East of England Radiotherapy Network.
NNUH was chosen as host after a bidding process in 2019. The bid was approved by the East of England Cancer Alliance and NHS England Specialised Commissioning.
We welcome Dr Sue Broster as our interim Chair of the Network. Dr Broster succeeds Dr Ashley Shaw as interim Medical Director at CUHFT.
Information to follow.
I am taking on the role of Clinical Lead for the Radiotherapy Network from 2025. I aim to guide the team in preparing the Network for the challenges it faces and responding to the needs of its constituent hospitals and their patients. I am a Consultant in Clinical Oncology at Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals NHS Trust and have been since 2019. I specialise in the treatment of upper-gastrointestinal and HPB cancers and sarcoma.
I completed specialty training in the East of England and a DPhil research fellowship in pancreas cancer radiotherapy at Oxford. The science of radiotherapy technology development is exciting and I try to pass on my enthusiasm to the doctors in training that I supervise .
I believe in the potential opportunities for the region to work in closer collaboration, for the benefits of our staff and patients. I am passionate about the importance of radiotherapy in our cancer treatment armoury, but in the world of increasing systemic therapy options, radiotherapy must continue to develop and improve through service evolution and clinical research.
My role is to provide strong clinical leadership for the continued roll-out of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) in the EofE RTN. This role supports an increase in the knowledge of clinicians, radiographers and physicists from across the EofE RTN to ensure excellent quality SABR treatment. I currently chair the EofE RTN SABR clinical meeting. This regular platform allows all centres to share experiences of SABR case selection, treatment planning and delivery, and post-treatment follow up.
I have been in my role since October 2019, when the EofE RTN was officially launched. Before this I worked as a Therapeutic Radiographer in several departments across England, and also worked in Ireland and New Zealand. This has allowed me to develop a broad understanding of radiotherapy over the years, and led me to my final clinical role of radiotherapy treatment superintendent at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH).
In my role I am required to work alongside the established team to facilitate effective and timely delivery of the radiotherapy service specification across the East of England. By building relationships and facilitating collaboration between radiotherapy colleagues and stakeholders across the network, I believe we can deliver improvements that can build resilience, improve the quality of services, and enhance the experience of radiotherapy for our patients. I am keen to raise the profile of the EofE RTN amongst the many stakeholders involved in radiotherapy regionally and nationally, as well as with patients. I would like to help increase recruitment into the radiotherapy workforce in our Network, and to ensure all patients are able to access radiotherapy where it is an appropriate treatment option.
I've been in my role since 2023. I have worked in radiotherapy for many years after qualifying at a Therapeutic Radiographer. I've worked in 5 Hospital Trusts and for two healthcare charities. In 2004, I became one of the first On Treatment Review Radiographers, establishing the role and developing the radiotherapy review service. Since then, I have developed and established patient and carer services for Macmillan Cancer Support and for a hospital charity in a large London hospital. More recently, I managed projects for different radiotherapy Networks.
In my role, I am required to support Michelle delivering the Service Specification. I manage various projects to deliver the service specification and support achieving our aims for the Network. I enjoy using data to support service development, so that people outside of the radiotherapy world can see the impact of innovation and understand the challenges that services and people who use the services experience. I am passionate about patient co-production, and keeping people who use our services central to service development.
The patient co-production group comprises people who have had radiotherapy at each of our departments. We work with professionals to improve services. Co-Production is ensuring that people with lived experience are included in decision making, to ensure services work well, and are fit for purpose. The group allows people who have used radiotherapy to share their experiences and knowledge to shape future services.
If you are a new member of the network Oversight Group, this information is designed to support you understand the role of the Network and how your involvement provides an important perspective to the Network to ensure our work aligns with the needs of our radiotherapy colleagues. Useful contact information is also provided.
These groups were originally developed to develop, agree and regularly review network wide radiotherapy treatment protocols. The scope of these groups is now expanding to provide a mechanism for dissemination of data obtained from the NHS England Quality Improvement Toolkits, which combine data from RTDS and ProKnow to support greater understanding of variation in radiotherapy delivery. We are currently waiting further information on when this data will be available. Currently the Quality Improvement Toolkits data that we are expecting is: Head & Neck, Lower GI, Lung, Oesophago-gastric, and Prostate.
By becoming a member of a Network Tumour Group you have an opportunity to attend Network Tumour group meetings, National Radiotherapy Clinical Leads meetings when there is discussion relating to specific tumour groups, receive e-mails about commissioning stakeholder testing, and will be on the e-mail circulation for any Quality Improvement Toolkit data that is received for the relevant tumour group.
Chair: Dr Sarah Treece, NWAFT
Protocol Review Due: March 2026
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Kim Whitlock, NNUHFT
Protocol review Due: August 2025
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Pinelopi Gkogkou, NNUHFT
Protocol review Due: February 2024 (In progress)
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Rafiq Islam, MSEFT
Anus Protocol Review Due: December 2025
Rectum protocol review Due: November 2024 (In progress)
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Krishnaswamy Madhavan, MSEFT
Cervix Protocol Review Due: September 2024 (In progress)
Endometrium Protocol Review Due: In development
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Vivienne Loo, ESNEFT
Protocol Review Due: September 2025
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Kent Yip, WSHFT
Protocol Review Due: April 2025 (In progress)
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr T V Ajithkumar, CUHFT
Protocol Review Due: February 2026
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Tom Roques, NNUHFT
Protocol Review Due: February 2025 (In progress)
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr T V Ajithkumar, CUHFT
Protocol Review Due: June 2025
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Helen Swannie, NNUHFT
Protocol Review Due: April 2025 (In progress)
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Imtiaz Ahmed, MSEFT
protocol Review Due: March 2026
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Gail Horan, CUHFT
Protocol Review Due: February 2026
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Dr Jenny Nobes, NNUHFT
Protocol Review Due: April 2025 (In progress)
Next Meeting: TBC
Chair: Rachel Laker, ESNEFT
Next Meeting: TBC
This group is responsible for the support and development of Consultant Radiographer collaborative practice across the region.
Chair: Alison Bowman, EofE RTN
Next Meeting: Friday 25th April 14:00 - 15:00
This group is responsible for developing network agreed standardised patient information where appropriate. The group includes patient co-production volunteers and representatives from the radiotherapy departments.
Chair: Nicky Whilde, MSEFT
Next Meeting: Wednesday 16th April 14:00 - 14:45
This group is responsible for overseeing the upload of data to ProKnow; including the upload of data to national collections as they are developed; ensuring the dissemination of information from PCLIG and PTOG; and developing any Network audits as required.
Chair: TBC
Next Meeting: TBC
This group has been established to agree network guidelines for a standardised approach for managing patients undergoing re-irradiation to ensure safe, effective, and evidence-based treatment while minimising risks of toxicity.
Chair: Sarah Bailey, NNUHFT
Next Meeting: Thursday 8th May 10:00 - 10:30
This group is being developed to provide oversight of the delivery of radiotherapy clinical trials across the Network. 2 aims for 2025/ 2026 have been agreed by the group. These are:
We are looking to expand the membership of this group to include Clinical Oncologists and Clinical Scientists. Please get in touch if you are interested in joining the group.
Chair: Dr Alex Martin, CUHFT
Next Meeting: Weekly; Thursday 12:00 - 13:00
This meeting is designed to provide mutual support for SABR cases being treated in the Network, and is a forum for mutual learning and education. Cases for discussion can be e-mailed to the Network Programme Manager. All staff are encouraged to attend, and we especially welcome anyone who wishes to present on any SABR related topic which may be of interest to Clinical Oncologists, Therapeutic Radiographers, and Clinical Scientists. This can include journal article discussion, presentations of conference learnings, local audit, interesting planning and/ or treatment cases, and unexpected treatment outcomes.
Chair: Lara Anthony, NNUHFT
Next Meeting: Last Tuesday of the month; 13:00 - 14:00
This MDT is facilitated by the East of England Cancer Alliance and is open to all healthcare professionals with an interest in managing late-effects of cancer treatment.
Friday 16th May 2025
Hinxton Hall Conference Centre, Wellcome Genome Campus, CB10 1RQ
Join us for this free event filled with insightful presentations and networking opportunities centred around the theme 'Patients First, Staff Always'. This in-person event will provide day of learning and collaboration. Don't miss out on this chance to connect with other radiotherapy professionals and learn more about ProKnow, SGRT, Prehabilitation and Rehabilitation for radiotherapy patients, and much more.
This event would not be possible without the sponsorship provided by the following: Ergea, VisionRT, Xiel, Oncology Systems Limited, PTW Dosimetry, THOR Photomedicine Ltd, MIS Healthcare, Varian, and Wesleyan.
WEDNESDAY 2nd JULY 2025
BENJAMIN GOOCH LECTURE HALL, NORFOLK AND NORWICH UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Join us for this free event which provides an opportunity for collaboration and learning for colleagues across the Network. A working party is in the process of developing an exciting agenda which will be shared shortly.
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