'WORCESTERSHIRE MUST RETAIN HEAD AND NECK CANCER SURGERY' - BURT

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 18th Jun 2009

Local Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, Richard Burt has written to the Chairman of the Three Counties Cancer Network (3CCN) calling for the retention of head and neck cancer surgery in Worcestershire.

The call follows a knife-edge review board decision to run one operating site in Gloucester rather than the two sites currently operating in both counties.

The West Midlands parliamentary spokesman for health claimed there was no evidence to suggest that a one site solution would provide better care for head and neck cancer patients in Worcestershire or Gloucestershire.

"If surgical services for head and neck cancer are moved to one resection centre, patients from Worcestershire will have to travel on average an extra 25 miles to receive their care. Many more from the north of the county will opt to travel to Birmingham for surgery, making it very difficult for Worcestershire to retain specialist consultants, surgeons and nursing staff.

"Within five years, the expertise built up in Worcestershire over more than a decade would be lost for ever, and so would the commitment to local cancer care within the county.

"I have written to the Chairman of 3CCN to point out what I consider to be serious irregularities in the decision making process and questioning the evidence for any claims that centralisation would provide improvement in patient care.

"The current two centre model provides an excellent service delivered locally, supporting patients through all stages of their care pathway to discharge, often as long as five years. It makes no sense to break up an excellent cancer service serving the whole of Worcestershire."