THE design of the new £16million hi-tech cancer treatment centre for Basingstoke is to be decided in a Europe-wide competition.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has placed an advert in the Official Journal of the EU, calling for “expressions of interest” from architects able to come up with “a building of outstanding architectural merit”.

The notice says the design competition would be “for a new building incorporating treatment (chemotherapy and radiotherapy), support, administrative and staff spaces and facilities, including landscaping, parking and necessary connections to existing buildings at the hospital”.

World-renowned surgeon Merv Rees, a driving force behind the project, wants the new centre to be an inspirational building.

Mr Rees, who is the foundation trust’s medical director of surgical services, said: “I want people to walk in and say ‘Wow, I want to be treated here!’ “I want someone with the imagination and ideas to join our vision of creating something special for the people of north Hampshire.”

It is expected the new centre will cost £10m to build and £6m to equip.

Mr Rees said although no site has been decided on, there is space around the hospital and near The Ark at Basingstoke hospital – the medical education building for which he successfully campaigned. An interim radiotherapy building is to be erected close by and its site could be used as part of the new treatment centre which will offer radiotherapy, chemotherapy, palliative and complementary care and well-being advice.

Hospital bosses hope to choose the winning design team early next year, with a view to opening the new centre in 2015 or 2016.

Mr Rees hopes to have a shortlist of architects by September when a fundraising drive will be launched.

It was in February that The Gazette exclusively revealed how Mr Rees and colleagues at the trust want to build a cancer treatment centre in north Hampshire, to save patients the 60-mile round trip to either Southampton or Guildford for specialist cancer treatment.

This week, Mr Rees again stressed that car parking needs to be provided as part of the new centre as it was a big concern for patients undergoing sometimes gruelling treatment.