A consortium behind a major cancer centre in Italy has been signed up to build and manage an £80m project at an Oxford hospital.

Managers at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust announced on Monday, April 19, that it had struck a deal with Impregilo to build the Oxford Cancer Centre at the Churchill Hospital.

The consortium has recently completed the European Institute of Oncology in Milan as well as a radiology department in Wolverhampton.

It is anticipated that work on the Oxford Cancer Centre will begin later this year and be completed in 2007.

Trevor Campbell Davis, trust chief executive, said: "Today's announcement means that we can take forward our plans to build state of the art facilities for cancer patients and their families at the Churchill Hospital.

"Over the next few years, patients are going to be treated in greatly improved facilities in our hospitals and at the same time, get much quicker access to care."

Oxford Cancer Centre will bring together services spread over a number of sites in the city.

It will include three new operating theatres, a high dependency unit, inpatient and outpatient facilities and other specialist departments. Impregilo was one of two groups of companies considered by the Oxford trust to take on the Private Finance Initiative deal for the centre.

The project was advertised across Europe in October 2002 and the 16-month selection process involved hospital staff, patients and carers.

The deal will be similar to the one announced by the trust earlier this year, when The Hospital Company was chosen to build a new wing and children's hospital at the John Radcliffe.

The Hospital Company is another consortium, made up of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Carillion Private Finance and RTKL Architects.

The PFI consortiums will pay to build and own the buildings, and the NHS will pay back the money over 30 years.

Impregilo includes Impregilo International Infrastructures NV, a multinational corporation specialising in major civil engineering projects and healthcare.