National Procurement supporting the delivery of effective and reliable treatments for cancer patient healthcare
NHS National Services Scotland’s National Procurement Equipping Sourcing Team supporting roll-out of two new £2.5million radiotherapy machines.
Published on 29 August 2023
NHS National Services Scotland’s National Procurement Equipping Sourcing Team has supported the first roll out of two new £2.5million radiotherapy machines in NHS Grampian. A move which has enabled NHS Grampian to currently have the largest adaptive cancer treatment capacity in the UK.
The machines are the Ethos Linear Accelerators (Linacs) – the first of their kind in Scotland. They enable medics to personalise each dose of radiotherapy to best target tumours throughout a course of treatment. The images provided by the machine allow practitioners to monitor treatment progress more closely. They also allow for variation in the dose of radiotherapy each time, adapting to changes in the patient throughout their treatment journey (for example, changes in the patient’s weight, the size or the shape of the tumour).
National Procurement buyer, James Lennon, said: “These two new Linacs for NHS Grampian were chosen to expand the treatment delivery available in the Aberdeen Cancer Centre. We’ve also conducted a further tender for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, who are in the process of installing an Ethos Adaptive Linac in the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre.
“Moving forward we’ll continue to work closely with all five cancer centres across NHSScotland to ensure the best technology available is procured. This technology will enable radiotherapists and oncologists throughout Scotland’s cancer centres to provide the most effective and reliable treatments for cancer patient healthcare. This year we’ve released new tenders for five new Linacs across the Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh cancer centres, with further tenders due next year.”
The National Procurement Equipping Sourcing Team supports the five cancer centres across NHSScotland through the Capital Equipment Replacement Programme for the purchase of new equipment to deliver Radiotherapy treatments.