TWO wards specifically for patients with blood cancer needing inpatient care and treatment have opened at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre -Liverpool.

They include a stem cell transplant unit, isolation rooms and a special air-filtration system to reduce any risk of infection in people whose immune systems may be vulnerable.

Their opening is timely because September is blood cancer awareness month.

Until now, patients with blood cancer in Liverpool received their inpatient care from experts at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in beds at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

The opening of the new wards now means patients will continue being cared for by the same Clatterbridge team in a brand new facility alongside other specialist oncology services.

Ward four has 29 single en-suite rooms for adults aged 25+ with a wide range of blood cancers including acute and chronic leukaemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

Treatments provided will include inpatient chemotherapy and transfusions of blood products such as lymphocytes - a type of white blood cells crucial for the immune system.

Ward five is the stem cell transplant unit, which has 12 single en-suite rooms where patients will receive transplants of blood-forming stem cells and other blood products.

It also has facilities for collecting stem cells, either from patients before they have chemotherapy or from other matching donors, usually close family members.

Ward five will also provide treatments including inpatient chemotherapy and a wide range of support services for people with blood cancer. It will also have dedicated facilities for teenagers and young adults aged under 25.

Both wards will also have a team of research practitioners so patients with blood cancer can access clinical trials of pioneering new treatments.

Professor Andrew Pettitt, Consultant Haematologist at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The new wards are the culmination of five years of work to bring blood cancer care together with other cancers.

"For the first time in Liverpool, people needing inpatient, daycase or outpatient care for blood cancer can now be seen and treated in the same spectacular facilities, with a comprehensive range of cancer support services and facilities available on site.

"At the same time, being right next door to the Royal means that our patients will still benefit from the excellent support that we've been so lucky to have all these years from our colleagues in other specialties.

"In other words, our patients will have the best of both worlds."