New £24m Worcestershire cancer centre is approved
Plans for Worcestershire's first radiotherapy centre have received the final seal of approval paving the way for building work to swing into action.
NHS Midlands and East has given the £24 million project the green light, meaning shorter journeys for patients from Kidderminster. The centre has been in the pipeline for around five years and is expected to open in 2014.
Patients in the county are forced to travel to centres in Wolverhampton, Coventry or Gloucester for their cancer treatment.
Contractors will now be appointed to begin work on the building which will stand on the existing accident and emergency department car park at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, in Worcester.
This news follows the Department of Health approving the £22.4million loan to fund the project.
Simon Hairsnape, speaking on behalf of NHS Worcestershire said: "The new radiotherapy centre will ensure that the vast majority of radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments will be delivered within Worcestershire, which is great news for local patients."
Adel Makar, lead cancer clinician, said: "For the first time he people of Worcestershire will have a state of the art radiotherapy centre at the heart of their community. Our aim is to ensure that every cancer patient in Worcestershire will have access to state of the art, timely, holistic care, locally in Worcestershire whenever possible.
"This kind of service development and improvement is the archetype of what we are trying to do in Worcestershire to improve patient services both in terms of quality and accessibility."
It will have five radiotherapy bunkers, two CT scanner rooms, two treatment rooms and three consultancy rooms. There would also be administrative offices, workshops and control rooms, reception and waiting room areas.
