Public Board of Directors papers 29.09.22

hybrid training. Funding is also a challenge, there is no national tariff, posts are non-permanent and there are issues of implementation versus research. CE outlined the educational framework developed by the team. A ‘bootcamp’ for clinicians and fellows was described for different staff led by radiographers and physics staff. A local quality system has been developed to ensure safe delivery of treatments Accomplishments were outlined. There are 10 open clinical trails, 2 international, 3 national and 5 local. Some of the detail of the trials was described. There are also a number of PhD students and fellows. Several world and UK firsts have been achieved and these were also described. The workflow was outlined and the move to reassign tasks so that radiographers can lead and not the consultant. The level of publications was shown over the last few years to show the output. Some patient feedback shows that the patients don’t like being on the table for so long as it takes more time. The experience can be uncomfortable. However, many patients show similar feedback on this machine as on a standard machine. There is a desire to improve patient comfort and look at ways to reduce the time of the machine. CE acknowledged the great team. CO thanked AC and CE for their presentation and the pioneering work around the MR Linac. Questions were invited. KW asked at what point the evidence base gets enough for this to move from research to standard treatment. CE noted that there’s a long way to go and talked about abdominal cancers that may be able to be done on this machine. There are also a small number of publications that show reduced toxicity for other cancers and we want to follow up on this. This is probably about 5 years away. AC noted that other technologies have been implemented without level 1a evidence, e.g., protons, robotic surgery etc. NB noted that the evidence takes a long time to catch up with the advances with radiotherapy and this has always been the way. AC noted that over 50% of patients will have radiotherapy at some point in their treatment and a very small proportion of research money goes to this form of therapy. CO noted the importance of world leading research and this is a great example of this. AC invited the Board to come and have a look at the kit. Item Action 24/22 Standard business a Apologies Apologies were received from Kathryn Riddle (KR), Non-executive director b Declarations of Interest No declarations of interest noted. c Minutes of the previous meeting – 26 th May 2022 The minutes were accepted as a correct record.

d Action plan rolling programme, action log & matters arising All items from the rolling programme are noted on the agenda.

RS noted that the Annual Report & Financial statements have been approved and now submitted but the value for money assessment is outstanding.

3