WORK has started on a new radiotherapy centre at Torbay Hospital to care for cancer patients in south Devon.

The radiotherapy planning CT suite is part of a multi-million-pound investment to transform the way cancer care is provided.

From this summer, people waiting for a cancer diagnosis and treatment will be cared for at the new building, which will house a new state-of-the-art Radiation Therapy Computed Tomography (RT-CT) scanner.

As well as the new scanner which has been purchased with funds donated by Torbay Hospital League of Friends, the suite includes a range of features to make the patients’ experience as comfortable as possible, including improved changing facilities and toilets. There will also be LED ceiling light picture panels on the ceiling in the CT scanner room.

This is a £2.8 million investment in Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust’s radiotherapy service and will allow the treatment team to use the images to plan radiotherapy.

Dr Nicole Dorey, consultant clinical oncologist and clinical lead for radiotherapy, said: ‘Radiotherapy plays an important role in treating, curing, and controlling cancer, and I’m delighted that work has begun on creating our new radiotherapy planning CT suite. We know that beginning a course of radiotherapy can be an unsettling and worrying time for people and we hope our new CT scanner and suite will provide a better environment for people and help them to approach their treatment with confidence.

‘Our new CT scanner will allow us to obtain high quality scans in a faster, more efficient way and ensure our radiotherapy team can continue to deliver and develop excellent care.’