Evelina London progresses plans to welcome very specialist children's cancer services

Evelina London has progressed to the Final Business Case stage of plans to welcome very specialist children's cancer services to its children's hospital. The Outline Business Case received the green light from the Trust Board and NHS England and demonstrates that plans for the services will meet the needs of families.

Evelina London Children's Hospital was selected by NHS England as the future location of children's cancer services for south London and much of south east England in March 2024. Since then, together with partner organisations they have been focused on preparing for the safe transfer of the existing children's cancer Principal Treatment Centre from The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Completion of the Outline Business Case is a significant milestone in the journey to bring very specialist children's cancer services to Evelina London. It is an important requirement to demonstrate that plans for the transfer and the running of the future service continue to be robust, affordable and will meet the needs of patients and families. Progression to the Final Business Case means that the Trust Board and NHS England are assured by the plans in place for clinical care, research and design of the future spaces.

Evelina London has collaborated with colleagues at The Royal Marsden, St George's, King's College Hospital and University College Hospital. Working together and providing expert guidance the teams have laid the foundation for all of the work so far.

Gubby Ayida, Chief Executive of Evelina London, said: "I am pleased we have reached this significant stage in transferring specialist cancer services to Evelina London Children's Hospital. The Outline Business Case is the result of a tremendous amount of effort from the team here in close collaboration with patient representatives and colleagues from the existing service. We are very grateful to everyone who has been involved so far and provided essential insight to allow this service to continue being the best it can be for future families in its new location.

The future services will build on all the strengths of the current service and co-designing with experts and families is crucial to this. The voices of patients are represented at every stage in the development of our plans.

"Our focus is now on progressing detailed designs of the cancer care areas which will be included in the Final Business Case and we will be beginning construction of the new spaces very soon."

Visit our get involved page to find out more about how families are helping to shape plans and to sign up to receive updates about upcoming opportunities.