The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

Bethany Robinson works in our gynaecological cancer research team, and is going to be walking with The Christie in the Manchester Pride parade on Saturday. 🌈 "I grew up in a place where to be LGBT+ was to be the butt of the joke. I went to my first Manchester Pride back in 2021 and there, surrounded by my community and allies, I felt safe. Working at The Christie and being LGBT+ are two things I'm very proud of and I'm looking forward to bringing them together in the parade on Saturday," she says.

Our staff have been praised highly in the CQC Adult Inpatient Survey which was published this week. The annual survey questions patients who were in the Trust in November 2023 about their experience and then undertakes a complex scoring system to compare the experience at Trusts across the country. Some key findings from the survey for The Christie include: ✅ Patients felt that they were treated with dignity and respect while they were in hospital - (Scoring 9.7 out of 10) ✅ Patients felt hospital staff answered their questions before being admitted into hospital - (Scoring 9.1 out of 10) ✅ Patients felt nurses included them in discussions about their care - (Scoring 9.3 out of 10) ✅ Patients had a lot of confidence and trust in the doctors treating them - (Scoring 9.7 out of 10) ✅ Patients felt very satisfied with the amount of information they were given about their condition or treatment - (Scoring 9.7 out of 10) Vicky Sharples, Chief Nurse and Executive Director of Quality at The Christie, said: “All our staff work hard and strive to provide the best quality patient care, putting patients at the heart of everything we do. Patient feedback through surveys like this is essential to us, and we always listen to patients to find out how we can give them the best experience possible. We are thrilled that this shows up so clearly from patients in the results of this national survey, but we are never complacent.” Read more about the CQC survey here 🔗 https://bit.ly/3Tnvq59

Here's the first look inside our new 20-bed inpatient ward. 🏥 We're just putting the final touches to the building, which will open in the next couple of months.

Susy Pramod is a senior nurse who supports people with cancer-related wounds like pressure ulcers. Pressure ulcers, sometimes known as 'bedsores' are injuries that break down the skin and underlying tissue when an area of skin is placed under pressure. She has recently been nominated for a Nursing Times Award for making care more equitable and inclusive for our patients. Skin damage shows up differently in different people. Susy has addressed this by introducing a skin tone assessment into our wider pressure ulcer risk assessment, as well as training sessions for nursing and other healthcare colleagues. This training is now also part of our wider induction. The result has been that colleagues are now more able to identify changes in people with different skin tones earlier and are able to intervene more quickly. Susy is now supporting other hospitals across the country to introduce something similar. “I’ve worked at The Christie for nearly 10 years, and this is one of the things I’m most proud of. We’ve made a difference to patients, which is the main thing, but I’m also happy that our work has been recognised with this award nomination. We serve a diverse community here in Manchester and it’s important that our services meet their needs. It started as a pilot and is now part of our day-to-day practice and training,” comments Susy.

People from all over the UK and the world choose to come and work at The Christie. Without them, our hospital wouldn’t function and we wouldn’t be able to provide the care we do.💙 We are proud to be a hospital with a diverse workforce supporting a diverse community here in the North West. Kindness, human connection and making a difference to our patients and their loved ones are why we come to work. Following the tragedy in Southport and the ongoing violence that followed, these values are more important than ever. Hate has no place in our hospital or our communities. We are clear that we will not tolerate racism, or any other form of discrimination or abuse from staff, patients, or visitors at any time. If we see anything that’s inappropriate, we will act on it immediately. Patients and visitors are expected to follow a code of behaviour and we have a policy and process that supports this. Our 3,000 plus colleagues look after over 60,000 people every year. Please work with us to make sure that each and every one of them is safe and cared for. We are The Christie.

The Christie’s multi-disciplinary abdomino-pelvic surgical team specialises in rare abdominal cancers and cancer-related conditions requiring complex operations. One of the procedures they do is pelvic exenteration for people with bowel, cervical, or urological cancer. This is a major operation to remove multiple abdominal organs in cases where the cancer has spread to other parts of the pelvis, or has come back after previous treatment. The Christie team was recently invited to participate in an international study to define a global 'benchmark' for this type of surgery. 763 patients at 16 cancer centres across the globe took part, and the results show that our treatment outcomes over a five-year period are some of the best. “Achieving the best possible outcomes for patients is at the heart of everything we do”, comments Paul Sutton, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at The Christie. “Going forward this method of outcome measurement will be used to continually assess our performance and drive further improvements in the service we offer.”

Elizabeth Toon, one of our nurses, recently retired after working in our NHS for 52 years, 35 of which were spent at The Christie. She started as a nursing cadet at Park Hospital, the birthplace of the NHS, then moved to The Christie back in 1989. She worked on a lot of the wards during her time here but spent the last 15 years or so in the surgical team. "One of my most enduring memories is being able to be there when one of our patients married his fiancée in hospital. I felt so privileged and honoured to have been able to share their celebration," Elizabeth says. Both of Elizabeth's sisters also worked at The Christie, and the younger one still does. More recently, her nephew worked in the chemo suite and then went on to complete his nurse training. It's truly been a family affair. "The Withington site is unrecognisable from when I started. The site has grown and changed to incorporate all the amazing services we offer, like proton beam therapy and robotic surgery. "I can truthfully say my time at The Christie has been happy and extremely rewarding. I've worked with so many wonderful people who all put excellent patient care at the heart of what we do," she adds. Congratulations on your retirement, Elizabeth. #TheChristie #NHS #Nurse #SurgicalNurse #Cancer NHS England

July saw the return of our annual garden party, a way of saying thank you to our brilliant colleagues. The weather just about held up and the hotly contested Christie bake-off and art competitions were judged by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS). Chris Bell, one of our research nurses, came first in both the 'full cake' and 'cupcake' categories, whereas Hannah Poulton, who works in the clinical skills team, clinched the prize for the best traybakes on offer. 🏆 A big thank you to each and every one of our 3,000 colleagues for everything you do for patients. 💙

Congratulations to Professor Peter Hoskin, one of our radiotherapy researchers, who was given the Marie Curie Award at this year's World Congress of Brachytherapy. 🎖️ The prestigious prize, which is only given out once every four years, recognises his major contribution to the development of brachytherapy, a type of internal radiotherapy.

13-year-old Maya Tohid ran nearly 100km for charity while having cancer treatment at The Christie. As a result, she's now been nominated for both a JustGiving and a Pride of Britain award. 🏆 Maya, who lives with her mum, dad, and younger sister, was diagnosed with a craniopharyngioma, an uncommon type of brain tumour, after having headaches so severe that she couldn’t get out of bed. She had an operation at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and was then referred to The Christie for 28 sessions of daily proton beam therapy, a type of radiotherapy. It was while she was at The Christie that she came up with the idea of running 100k during her treatment to raise awareness of brain tumours and to raise money for charity. Maya finished her treatment in October last year and her most recent scans show that her tumour is stable. She is back at school and back doing the things she loves – ice skating, playing the violin and running, of course. “I was so happy when I found out,” comments Maya. “I started doing the challenge because I wanted to do something I hated to raise awareness, I never thought that so many people would be interested. I still can’t quite believe it." More on Maya's story 👉 https://bit.ly/3yv4atU #TheChristie #BrainTumour #Cancer #CancerSurvivor #KidsWithCancer #ProtonBeamTherapy