CANCER patients in Worcestershire will soon be able to get all their care under one roof after hospital bosses agreed to move all services into the county’s new oncology centre.

The £23 million Worcestershire Oncology Centre is due to open to patients in January next year, offering radiotherapy services in the county for the first time.

Now the board of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs the new centre at Worcestershire Royal Hospital along with Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital – has agreed to move chemotherapy and acute emergency oncology services currently based at the Royal into the first floor of the building.

The trust’s lead cancer clinician Adel Makar described the announcement as “fantastic news”.

“It will bring cancer services together into one state-of-the-art facility,” he said.

“This will bring the cancer teams together and will undoubtedly improve patient pathways and patient experience.

“It will also create additional capacity to cater for the growing demand for these services.”

Patient representative on the board Paul Crawford – himself a former cancer patient – also welcomed the news.

“In a matter of weeks we will be offering radiotherapy services in county for the first time ever, saving patients an estimated one million miles of travel a year,” he said.

“This further development will also increase the amount of chemotherapy treatment that is able to be offered within the county.”

Work is now set to begin on financial and design work while a full business case is being developed over the next six to nine months.

It is hoped services will be moved over to the new centre by early spring 2016.

For further information visit www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/improving-cancer-services.