First image of new £24m cancer centre
The first image has been unveiled showing how a new radiotherapy centre for cancer patients from Kidderminster and across Worcestershire will look.
Health chiefs have approved the business plan for the £24 million project and it's hoped the complex will open its doors in 2014. It will mean shorter journeys for patients, who currently, due to historical cancer care arrangements, have to go to sites in Wolverhampton, Coventry or Gloucester for their radiotherapy treatment.
The centre will be built on the existing accident and emergency department car park at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester.
Designs for the new building show a modern centre with a spacious reception and waiting area.
It would have five radiotherapy bunkers, two CT scanner rooms, two treatment rooms and three consultant rooms. There would also be associated offices, workshops and control rooms as well as a the reception and waiting area.
The project includes plans for a 401-space car park on land adjacent to the hospital site, which will increase the number of spaces for patients. Bosses estimate building the centre in Worcester will save patients around a million miles of travel every year.
Penny Venables, Chief Executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust said: "Statistics are important when arguing the case for service improvement but they do nothing to convey the human dimension of the problem which I hear about from our patients.
"We all know someone who has been affected by cancer and this scheme offers local people the best treatments available and a modern working environment."
