Works on the Oncology Centre at Mater Dei Hospital have entered the third phase, following the complicated construction of three bunkers that required 3,000 cubic metres of concrete.

The first phase consisted of the excavation and the second involved the building of the bunkers, which will eventually house the linear accelerators, or radiation machines.

The building of the bunkers was “complex and specialised”, with each one having an internal area of 65 square metres and completely surrounded by concrete flooring, walls and ceiling, with a thickness of between one and three metres.

The Oncology Centre will have 96 beds, 74 for inpatients and 22 for day care, as opposed to the 26 currently available for cancer patients at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital.

The €56.9 million project, 85 per cent being co-financed from EU Structural Funds, began in 2010 and is moving according to plan, Health Minister Joe Cassar said.

Speaking during a visit to the construction site, he said the centre would continue to strengthen the government’s action against cancer, which includes the breast and colon cancer national screening programmes, as well as the free vaccine for cervical cancer to 12-year-old girls.