Plans for a £700m cancer centre serving patients across the south-east of Scotland have taken a step forward as a funding bid is submitted to the Scottish government.

The blueprint would see a stand-alone centre on the site of Edinburgh Western General Hospital with satellite facilities across the region.

Cancer patients from Fife, the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway will be treated at the new facility.

If the funding proposal is approved the centre is projected to be up and running and able to see its first patients by 2028.

There is an price tag of £635-£700m for the preferred option, with yearly running costs of up to £33m. 

But if the move does not go ahead there are concerns that services could struggle to keep pace as cancer cases soar.

In its request for funding to the Scottish government, NHS Lothian says a new centre is “essential” against a backdrop of cancer patients rising by 22% by 2025.

Constraints on radiotherapy, chemotherapy and other cancer care are said to be “inevitable” if no action is taken.

Other options including upgrading existing facilities were deemed unsuitable.

Inspections have reported current arrangements at the Western General Hospital are not sustainable and a series of improvement projects are underway to bridge the gap before the new centre launches.

If the funding ask is approved construction is planned to take place from 2024 to 2027.

A paper considered by NHS Lothian’s board last week says any project will reflect lessons learned from other building projects, including the delayed Sick Kids hospital and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, which are both are the subject of a public inquiry.

Edinburgh’s Royal Hospital for Children and Young People opened its doors a year late after last-minute checks revealed defects with ventilation systems costing almost £30m to remedy.

In Glasgow the NHS is taking legal action against a contractor involved in the construction of the Queen Elizabeth after maintenance and design defects led to patient infection deaths.

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