Haslemere MP Jeremy Hunt visited the Royal Surrey to cut the turf at the hospital’s new £4million urology centre.

The Royal Surrey says the state-of-the-art centre will be a “superb example of NHS care at its finest”, providing a world-class service for cancer patients and allowing the hospital to continue to provide the most up to date care anywhere in Europe, from diagnosis to treatment.

It will also allow many of the research breakthroughs achieved at the University of Surrey to be delivered more quickly to patients.

And urology treatment will be further supported with the construction of a new surgical theatre and the purchase of two new state-of-the-art surgical robots.

South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt, who is also Secretary of State for Health, said: “I’m delighted to officially cut the turf for the new urology centre. Once built, this facility will lead the way in providing diagnosis and advanced treatment for hundreds of people affected by cancer.

“It reinforces the great strides the Royal Surrey and the NHS as a whole is making in better cancer care, particularly early diagnosis making the hospital the pre-eminent regional and national cancer care facility.”

The new urology centre is expected to provide diagnosis and treatment for up to 500 people in its first year and will act as a model of how centralised cancer care should be provided in the NHS.

Professor Stephen Langley, professor of urology and clinical director at the Guildford hospital added: “The new urology centre will allow us to deliver first-class care in a first class environment.

“It demonstrates the NHS at its finest, investing in superb facilities to match the level of care that we can provide to our local population. The centre would not have been possible without the close collaboration between our charity, the Prostate Project, and the Royal Surrey.”

In addition to the Royal Surrey’s £4million, the Prostate Project has raised £1.3million towards equipping the centre as part of its ambition to give men a better chance of beating prostate cancer.

The Prostate Project, which has launched its annual Octobeardfest appeal, is a registered charity established in 1998 by prostate cancer patient Colin Stokes, and his consultant urological surgeon at the Royal Surrey, John Davies.

Prostate Project chairman Dr Stokes said: “This will change forever how urology patients are treated at the Royal Surrey. As a world-class centre it will match the world-class medical team.”