WORK on an interim radiotherapy unit at Basingstoke hospital is gathering pace – and an artist’s impression of how the unit will look has now been released.

The unit, which is expected to operate for around two years on the site, will mean journey times for local cancer patients needing radiotherapy will be greatly reduced.

Currently, people have to travel to Southampton or Guildford for the treatment, which can mean 80-mile round-trips daily for up to six weeks.

The interim unit will be able to treat around 30 patients each day and will act as a stop-gap measure while a £13.5million state-of-the-art cancer treatment centre is being built, in a location yet to be announced.

It is expected that the treatment centre, which will offer a range of cancer treatments and services, will be built somewhere on land enclosed by the A34, M3 and A303.

Equipment which will be used in the interim radiotherapy unit, including an expensive linear accelerator – the machine used in the delivery of radiotherapy – and a new CT scanner, will be transferred to the cancer treatment centre before its anticipated opening in early 2016.

Meanwhile, building work for the radiotherapy suite is progressing well and is on track to be completed and ready for staff to move in to the building at the beginning of December.

It is expected that the interim radiotherapy unit will welcome its first patients in the spring of 2014.