ST JOHN’S Wood cancer sufferers will be able to receive treatment at a state-of-the-art centre on their doorstep when a new �33million cancer unit opens its doors next week.

The Wellington Hospital’s Platinum Medical Centre opens its doors on May 3 and will allow it to treat cancer patients at a new site around the corner without having to send them elsewhere.

The centre will also house the largest private outpatient and day care centre anywhere in Britain and is located in what was a derelict five-storey office block in Lodge Road.

Wellington chief executive Keith Hague says he wants the centre to enable local residents to have access to the best quality private healthcare. “Our local people are our main driver,” he said. “We want the Wellington to be the hospital of choice in north-west London.

“We have been planning this expansion for some time because of the increasing demand for our services and our need to introduce new areas of medicine.

“We started with the south building 37 years ago. Then 26 years ago, we got the north building. So I think we are due another major new development.

“We are already well known in most parts of the world and this will help enhance our standing even further.

“I’m just really excited about providing healthcare in such a wonderful environment.”

The hospital currently consists of three buildings nearby on Wellington Road and caters for 70,000 outpatients each year – all of whom will now be seen at the Platinum Medical Centre.

The centre will increase overall size of the hospital by one-third and will contain 50 consulting rooms, four operating theatres and a 12-bed day surgery unit.

But Mr Hague says the biggest single development will come in the form of the new cancer care facility, run by Leaders in Oncology Care – a group of more than 35 leading cancer consultants.

“Cancer treatment has been missing at the hospital for some time,” he said. “At the moment, people are sent elsewhere for treatment.

“We have had a lot of positive support from the local community in terms of them not having to go down to Harley Street anymore for treatment.

“The new facility is going to have the highest level cancer experts.”

The movement of outpatients to the new centre will also free up more space in the existing Wellington Road buildings which will house new acute admissions departments for seriously ill patients.

Mr Hague says the new building will provide a much better purpose-built environment for day-care patients who at the moment are managed in “what is essentially a long-stay complex”.

The centre will undergo a phased opening, first treating outpatients and then cancer patients before it is fully open in July.