Federal Minister for Regional Health Mark Coulton calls Dubbo's health precinct "amazing" and notes its climb in status since he was elected the Member for Parkes 12 years ago.
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"This precinct which we have here now with Macquarie Home Stay and other facilities is really going to set Dubbo up as the centre for regional health," he said on Wednesday.
Mr Coulton was speaking as demolition of Dubbo Hospital's old and vacated renal unit officially began.
In about six weeks the old renal unit will have disappeared and the site prepared for the 15-month construction phase of the $35 million Western Cancer Centre.
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"Anyone in Dubbo 12 years ago knew this would nearly be an impossible dream," the minister told a small crowd.
"We need to be reminded where we started from."
Mr Coulton said the initial push for the cancer centre came from Dubbo clinicians who were supported by a "very strong local community that got the ball rolling".
He recalled delivering a 47,000-signature petition to the Federal Parliament on behalf of the people of Western NSW.
"It was one of the biggest petitions ever placed in the parliament," he said.
"It just goes to show the support for this centre."
Applause for the cancer centre, which will have the only PET/CT scanner in Western NSW, spilled over to Dubbo Hospital in its fourth stage of redevelopment as the crowd moved to the under-construction Macquarie Building to inspect new equipment including a $2 million MRI machine.
Hospital general manager Debbie Bickerton said it was defined by its state-of-the-art infrastructure, equipment and "services we can now provide".
She pointed to operating theatres in the Talbragar Building, built under stage one and two redevelopment.
"Our operating theatres are still the best in NSW" she said.
"We still get clinicians coming from Sydney and just looking at our theatres and saying wow.
"They are fully integrated, digitally-operated theatres and state of the art even though they are four years old."
Mr Coulton noted that next year the health precinct would grow to include a campus of the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network at the University of Sydney's School of Rural Health.
"You can imagine what it will be for the university's school of medicine to have a facility like this as part of their training program for their students," he said.
The cancer centre is being funded with $25 million from the federal government and $10 million from the state government.
The state government is spending almost $250 million on the redevelopment of Dubbo Hospital.
Macquarie Home Stay provides a place for regional patients of Dubbo Hospital to rest their heads.
