PRINCESS Anne is to officially open Worcester’s new oncolocy centre, it has been announced.

The Princess Royal will cut the ribbon at the new centre at Worcestershire Royal Hospital on Monday, April 13.

The £22.5 million centre, which opened to patients last month after four years of work, is the result of four years of work by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal along with Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital.

The trust’s chairman Harry Turner said: “We are honoured that HRH The Princess Royal has chosen to visit the Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

“The new oncology centre is a major development for patients in Worcestershire whilst the birth centre will give mums-to-be the choice of having their baby in a unit run by midwives.”

During her visit Princess Anne will also visit the new hospital’s Meadow Birth Centre, which is due to open at the end of March, and meet patients and staff.

The Princess Royal is no stranger to Worcester, having visited the city’s branch of young people’s charity YSS in April 2012. She is also patron of Malvern’s Three Counties Show.

The oncology centre was developed in partnership with University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and means 95 per cent of cancer patients in the county – who previously faced long, daily trips to Coventry, Cheltenham or Wolverhampton for treatment – can instead be treated close to home.

It already has three linear accelerator machines to deliver treatment with space for two more in the future.

Plans to move a chemotherapy suite, clinics and an acute oncology emergency assessment bay from the Royal to the new centre have also been given the go-ahead. It is expected the move will be complete by spring 2016.

The Meadow Birth Centre will have four birthing rooms and expected to deliver up to 1,000 babies every year to women who have not experienced complications or medical problems during their pregnancy and are considered ‘low risk’.