The £18.4m radiotherapy unit at Great Western Hospital which will save patients a 70-mile round trip for treatment is taking shape.
The frame of the building has been completed, brickwork is almost at roof level, roofing and plant room walls are underway, bunkers are being plastered and windows and doors are going in.
The radiotherapy unit, which is being overseen and run by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, has been years in the making.
OUH secured a loan of £15.9m from the government to build the unit and GWH’s charity Brighter Futures helped raise £2.9m.
A spokesperson for Oxford University Hospitals said: “The new Swindon radiotherapy centre at the Great Western Hospital is progressing well and the building should be watertight by the end of June.”
The project had been delayed because of financial problems at OUH. In 2018, the Adver revealed that the trust had initially hoped to finance the scheme through its own reserves – but changes to its financial situation had forced it to borrow the money.
Patients in Swindon currently need to travel to Oxford for radiotherapy.
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