Sir Robert Ogden and the Countess of Halifax, President of Macmillan Cancer Support, joined members of staff from the Trust to celebrate this exciting second stage of the work towards building the new Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre on the Harrogate Hospital site today (21 August 2012)
Phase one has involved building a new level on the car park at the front of the hospital and this will be completed in early September.
Among those attending were Sir Robert Ogden, the Countess of Halifax, President of Macmillan Cancer Support, Sandra Dodson, Chairman of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, Richard Ord, Chief Executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate & Knaresborough, Mr Andrew McAlpine from AcAlpine Contractors, who are building the unit and frontline healthcare staff.
The Trust has given it thanks to the immense generosity of Sir Robert Ogden and Macmillan Cancer Support. In partnership with the Trust, the new centre will provide state of the art facilities for cancer patients and their families across North Yorkshire.
Sir Robert Ogden and Macmillan Cancer Support have both donated £3.5 million towards the scheme.
Sir Robert Ogden said:
I am delighted to be invited to cut the turf for the start of this building stage of a much needed new cancer treatment and resource centre for the people of North Yorkshire.
The Harrogate Centre will build on the experience we gained from the earlier centre that I funded with Macmillan in St James’s Hospital Leeds, and I am sure it will be an equally outstanding success.
Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate & Knaresborough said:
This is a very exciting development and I am thrilled as it will make a big difference to the health care right across the area.
At the moment people need to travel to Leeds or York and that can be exhausting and arduous for people receiving treatment.
This development will give the best in health care locally and is part of a series of great developments for the hospital that has included a new day surgery theatre, a maxio-facial unit that is just about to open and the refurbishment and extension of the Farndale Ward.
The new centre is expected to be open in autumn 2013.
