About Us

Hello - I am Ashley Shaw, Medical Director at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS FT since 2017. I joined CUH in 2004 as a Consultant Radiologist with an interest in cancer imaging and have worked closely with various clinical and research teams within cancer and around the hospital over the past 16 years.

In my current role, I have responsibility for a range of areas at CUH including medical education and training, clinical outcomes, research and audit, as well as continuing some clinical practice. In respect of the network for radiotherapy, I am keen to ensure that every patient across the East of England has access to the best, evidence-based treatment delivered as close to home as possible so that we can optimise clinical outcomes.

In order to do this we all will need to share experiences, look to learn from each other’s practice and put the patient at the heart of everything that we do.

My name is Alex Martin, SABR clinical lead for the EofE RTN. My role is to provide strong clinical leadership for the continued roll-out of SABR in the EofE RTN. This role supports an increase in the knowledge of clinicians, radiographers and physicists from across the EofE RTN to ensure excellent quality SABR treatment. 

I currently chair the EofE RTN SABR clinical meeting which is held weekly on a Thursday. This regular platform will allow all centres to share experiences of SABR case selection, treatment planning and delivery, and post-treatment follow up. The weekly meetings started in April 2021 using Microsoft Teams as the virtual platform. It is not intended to replace the local SABR MDTs at each hospital, which remain a critical part of establishing an effective SABR service in centre. Rather it is to provide the opportunity for open discussion around the SABR cases that each centre are discussing and treating locally, with pooling of learning and experience. The meeting also includes regular presentations as a further opportunity for wider learning. A representative from one of the six centres presents on A SABR-related subject, for example a SABR case presentation, results of local audit or planning feedback.

My name is Dr Ajithkumar, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. In January 2022 I was appointed as Clinical Lead for the EofE RTN. This role provides professional and clinical leadership across the network, as part of a multi-disciplinary leadership team. I am involved in leading the strategic and operational development of coherent and effective network arrangements, and the delivery of a work programme that addresses national and local priorities.

My aspirations for this role include:

1. Building a patient centred, and network level competent work force:

• Building a sustainable workforce across the region with individual departments supporting each other to implement new services quickly and efficiently.
• Developing a culture of shared learning by remote peer review of Regions Of Interest (ROI’s) in complex SABR using ProKnow and subsequently providing individual centres a lead role in the consultation and consent of patients referred for SABR to specialist centres in the region. This will be done by promoting joint substantiative and honorary appointments.

2. Promoting network level strategic discussions on capacity-demand planning, job shares and joint appointments.

3. Being involved in the development and implementation of speciality score card and  clinical outcome metrics.

4. Establishing an East Of England SABR clinical fellowship for senior clinical oncology trainees.

5. Establishing a network level rapid access palliative RT service to improve the experience of patient care.

Hello, I am Michelle Bates– Programme Manager for the East of England Radiotherapy Network. I have been in my role since October 2019, when the EofE RTN was officially launched.

Before my current role I worked as a Therapeutic Radiographer, having completed my training at the University of Liverpool and Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology. I’ve have worked in several departments across England and have also worked in Ireland and New Zealand. I think this has allowed me to develop a broad understanding of radiotherapy over the years and led me to my final clinical role of radiotherapy treatment superintendent at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH).

In my role I am required to work alongside the established team to facilitate effective and timely delivery of the radiotherapy service specification across the East of England. By building relationships and facilitating collaboration between radiotherapy colleagues and stakeholders across the network, I believe we can deliver improvements that can build resilience, improve the quality of services, and enhance the experience of radiotherapy for our patients.

I aim to raise the profile of the EofE RTN amongst the many stakeholders involved in radiotherapy regionally and nationally, as well as patients. I would like to help increase recruitment into the radiotherapy workforce in our network, and to ensure all patients are able to access radiotherapy where it is an appropriate treatment option.

I qualified as a Therapeutic Radiographer in 1997.  In 2004, I became one of the first On Treatment Review Radiographers, establishing this role and developing the radiotherapy review service.  Since then, I have developed and established services for Macmillan Cancer Support and for a hospital charity.  More recently, I managed projects for different Radiotherapy Networks.

In my role I am required to support Michelle delivering the service specification. I manage various projects to deliver the service specification and support our aims for the RTN. I enjoy using data to support service development, so that people outside of the radiotherapy world can see the impact of innovation and understand challenges that services experience.  I am passionate about patient co-production, and keeping people who use our services central to service development.