A NEW 16-bed ward has been opened to help keep Basingstoke hospital at the forefront of the battle against a rare cancer.

The hospital has injected £950,000 to revamp a former surgical ward so it can carry on being the largest centre in the world for the treatment of Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) – also known as “jelly belly”.

The investment also means the hospital will remain the national centre for the treatment of the disease.

Consultant surgeon Brendan Moran, director of the Pseudomyxoma Centre, said: “We have transformed one of our old surgical wards to the highest specifications to create a modern unit for our highly specialist surgery patients.

“It has been built to the highest standards required for the complex delivery of high quality care for these patients.”

The new ward is on the hospital’s extensively refurbished C floor and most of the beds are in single rooms.

PMP is a rare disease of the abdominal or peritoneal cavity and usually develops from appendix cancer.

It affects two people per million each year. Patients are referred to the unit for assessment and treatment from all over the UK.

Mr Moran added that other patients undergoing major surgery would be able to use the state-of-the-art facility.