QUESTIONS are being asked after half the water outlets in Worcestershire’s new oncology centre were found to contain an antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Water outlets in the £22.5 million centre at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, which opened to patients in January, tested positive for pseudomonas, which can cause severe infections.

A meeting of the board of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust earlier today heard patients stood very little chance of infection and measures had already put in place including installing water filters.

Concerns have been raised that the bacteria had not been found sooner and the problem has been put down to design faults in the building.

The trust had since made it mandatory for any new structure built in the future to be fully examined by infection control experts before it can be opened to patients.

The centre was officially opened by Princess Anne in April and means cancer patients from Worcestershire and their families no longer face long daily trips to Coventry, Cheltenham or Wolverhampton for radiotherapy treatment but instead can stay much closer to their homes.

The state-of-the-art facility was developed in partnership with University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and already has three linear accelerator machines able 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, with the move expected to be complete by next spring.