Cancer care campaigners fight move

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to stop specialist cancer services transferring from Cornwall to Plymouth have called for a complete halt after plans for a parallel move in Devon were referred to the Government, writes the WMN's Lyn Barton.

Devon County Council's health and adult services overview scrutiny committee last week decided to call in Health Secretary Andy Burnham over the move of upper gastro-intestinal cancer services.

Health bosses say the transfer will mean better outcomes for patients of the complex disease, but the plans have met with fierce opposition.

The transfer has been controversial in Devon, with some councillors suggesting that assurances offered by health officials that services would not be compromised were unsatisfactory.

Referring it to the health secretary could cause a delay which would mean that patients at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E) would not transfer to the new service at Derriford on time.

Rose Woodward, chairman of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Cancer Patient and Carer Group, said this would terrible for Cornish patients. "Cornish patients are being treated as second class citizens in this. It is just discrimination," she said.

"Our patients are going to take a bigger hit than the Devon patients. What we could end up with is two centres for this in Devon and none in Cornwall."

Miss Woodward said Devon patients failing to transfer on schedule would mean that the argument for greater number of patients to creating a centre of excellence, would be void. "This needs to stop now," she said.

A spokesman for NHS Cornwall, the primary care trust (PCT) which is driving the move, said nothing had changed: "As far as we are concerned we are still focussed on implementation."

In Devon, major worries surround the possible loss of Exeter's world-renowned minimal invasive keyhole surgery and a lack of consideration for patients and families who would have to travel to Plymouth.

The Health Secretary will be asked to ensure that, should a move take place, such surgery will be available at the RD&E until such time as Derriford is capable of carrying it out.

Rebecca Harriott, interim chief executive of NHS Devon, the PCT, said they were still working to the January 2010 timetable for the creation of the new centre for upper GI cancer surgery," she said.

"We firmly believe that a single centre, with a concentration of skills, represents the best opportunity for a dedicated service serving Devon and Cornwall.

"We are fully committed to providing minimally invasive oesophagectomy – keyhole surgery – as one of the options for surgery at Derriford Hospital, and to supporting research into its effectiveness as a way of developing the service for the future."