Proton Partners International Ltd., the company bringing high energy proton beam therapy to the UK, has today announced a new design partnership for all future UK projects.
The agreement is between the subsidiary of Proton Partners International, Rutherford Estates, and DFJ Designs, a consortium of three architectural design companies – Desco, Fairhurst and JDDK – all of which have worked closely with Proton Partners International in the design of its oncology centres in Northumberland, Reading and Liverpool respectively.
Proton Partners International is building four UK oncology centres in total, the first of which has recently opened in Newport, South Wales, and the other three centres in Northumberland, Reading and Liverpool are currently under development. Other UK sites are also under consideration.
Each cancer centre will offer proton beam therapy, a type of cancer treatment which is not yet available in the country, in addition to conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, traditional radiotherapy, diagnostics, imaging, and wellbeing services. Dedicated supportive care will also be available to patients.
The company’s first centre in South Wales is currently offering conventional cancer treatments and proton beam therapy will be available next year.
Kevin Turnbull, Director of JDDK Architects, said: “JDDK Architects are delighted to have been appointed on a long term strategic partnership contract with Proton Partners International. Along with fellow design team partners Fairhurst and Desco, we have now been confirmed as the incumbent team to deliver all future centres for the company across the UK.
“This announcement follows the successful collaborative working demonstrated on our first two projects in Northumberland and Reading, which are currently progressing well on site and more recently our third project in Liverpool, which is due to commence on site in January 2018.”
Mike Moran, chief executive officer of Proton Partners International, said: “We’re really pleased to announce that we have appointed DFJ Designs as our partners. Over the past year, we have been working closely with them on the design of three of our centres and they have an extremely high quality and innovative approach.
“The patient experience is paramount and the design of our centres plays a central part in that. I therefore look forward to continue working with DFJ Designs in order to make our vision of bringing the best cancer care to more locations across the country a reality.”