11 August 2021

The neuro-oncology service operating across King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trusts has been designated a centre of excellence for the care and treatment of brain tumours by the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission.

To receive this accreditation, the service was measured on a range of criteria including excellent clinical practice and training opportunities, with emphasis on patient quality of life, providing clinical trials and offering a high standard of research opportunities.

The assessments were led by a committee of experts in the field and with virtual site visits and were backed up by patient feedback collected by The Brain Tumour Charity about the care they received at the centre. In total, nine brain tumour centres in the UK received the accreditation.

For patients treated at the centre, this accreditation ensure they can be confident that they receive the highest standard of care under the NHS and are able to access the latest cutting-edge trials and research. They will also gain greater visibility on where to access excellent centres.

Designation as a Tessa Jowell (TJ) Centre of Excellence will serve as a national recognition of staff going above and beyond. The TJ Centres will also act as an important network for sharing and promoting best practice, supporting further development of each centre.

Following the announcement earlier this year of successful centres, a formal accreditation ceremony took place on 8th July.

Prof Keyoumars Ashkan, Consultant Neurosurgeon at King’s College Hospital, who attended the ceremony at the Royal College of Physicians to accept the award, said:

It is an honour to be recognised as a Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence. We are extremely proud of the brain tumour service at King’s [College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust], which is made up of a skilled and dedicated team whose priority is always the needs of our patients.
We pride ourselves on developing new treatments and ground-breaking surgical techniques, to help improve patient care and outcomes. We will continue to work hard to provide the very best service.

The award is named in honour of Baroness Tessa Jowell, a prominent Labour politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood. Tessa delivered a powerful speech in the House of Lords recognising the need to improve brain tumour treatment, care, and survival for all patients following her own diagnosis in 2017. Since then, the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission has been leading on the Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence designation.

At King’s Health Partners Neurosciences we are using our collective expertise to become a global top ten Neurosciences Institute, demonstrated through excellence in research, education and clinical practice.

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