Dr Gemma Wall and Dr Gill Cooke, Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologists at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, are part of the team at the West Midlands Neuro-Oncology Network, which has just received the Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence award.
NHS teams, charity leaders and MPs gathered at the prestigious Francis Crick Institute on Thursday 15 May to celebrate 14 UK hospitals being designated Tessa Jowell Centres of Excellence for their outstanding brain tumour care and research, including the West Midlands network.
Inspired by Dame Tessa Jowell’s vision of better treatments and more equitable care, Tessa Jowell Centres of Excellence represent a lasting commitment to improving brain tumour care, showing what the NHS can do even in a tough funding climate. Patients can have confidence that they are able to access good care in every part of the UK, with Centres of Excellence leading the way on world-class treatment, cutting-edge clinical trials, and compassionate, patient-centred care.
The West Midlands Centre of Excellence is a collaboration between University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM), University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Birmingham. To receive the award, the network met rigorous, expert-led criteria to ensure the highest standards of patient treatment, innovation, and research.
Brain tumours affect over 12,000 adults in the UK every year and kill more people under the age of 40 than any other cancer.
Dr Gemma Wall, Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist and Clinical Lead for Neurology and Neuro-Oncology, said: “This service has been built over the last decade, and we are immensely proud that our commitment to excellent care for people with brain tumours has been recognised at this level.”
“We are particularly delighted that our application was commended for the close team working and excellent neuropsychology provision.”
Professor Richard Gilbertson, Chair of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission (TJBCM) and Chair of Oncology at the University of Cambridge, said: “The Centre of Excellence programme continues to give us an unprecedented view of the treatment, care and research of brain tumours in the UK; we now know better than ever where the NHS is excelling, but also where we need to come together to collectively address national challenges.”
