The campaign to keep head and neck cancer operations in Worcestershire continued yesterday at a meeting in the Charles Hastings Education Centre at the Worcester Royal Hospital.
The meeting was organised by head and neck cancer campaigner Paul Crawford and Worcestershire Local Involvement Network (LINk) chair Anne Montague-Smith.
The meeting gave Worcestershire based consultant oral-maxillofacial surgeon Graham James a platform to talk about the bid he and consultant ENT surgeon Chris Ayshford submitted to the Three Counties Cancer Care Network (3CCN) to keep head and neck cancer operations at Worcester. The meeting was attended by about 20 people, including a significant number from LINk.
Currently, head and neck cancer operations are carried out on behalf of the 3CCN at both Gloucester and Worcester. But the 3CCN has decided it would like to have these operations handled in just one location. The 3CCN invited tenders for the work from both Gloucester and Worcester but, under a flawed tender process, the fear is that operations will move to Gloucester. This will result in a gradual degradation of services in Worcester.
Mark Garnier, together with his Conservative Parliamentary colleagues in Worcestershire, has already backed the fight to maintain the status-quo: keeping services split, thus maintaining the best option for patients and - importantly for patients across Worcestershire - maintaining a centre of excellence in Worcester.
Mark Garnier said: "For me, this is about the best outcomes for cancer patients in Wyre Forest. To achieve that, we have to look at Worcestershire as a whole and that is why Peter Luff MP, Julie Kirkbride MP, Karen Lumley, Robin Walker, Harriett Baldwin and I are working as one. IN this way we can deliver a punch bigger than the sum of our individual influence.
"The tender process has been flawed in two ways: allowing the Gloucester bid to be submitted a week late (giving more time for work and arguably an inside look at the Worcester bid); and having members of the deciding body with a declarable conflict of interest in Gloucester's favour."
However, coming out of this debate are a number of issues that are relevant to cancer care in the whole county.
Although Worcestershire is part of the 3CCN, only the southern part of the county is covered. Wyre Forest patients go to Wolverhampton for radiotherapy treatment, unless it is as a result of head and neck surgery, in which case they go to Birmingham. Meanwhile, the 3CCN is part of the South West Regional Health Authority, whilst Worcestershire is part of the West Midlands.
Mark Garnier comments: "This is clearly a ludicrous situation. The organisation of cancer care defies belief and makes life incredibly confusing for patients, staff and for the people trying to organise and influence it. Although we have had some success recently in securing a radio therapy unit in Worcester, having spoken with Graham James, I am now convinced that we need to do a lot more for Worcestershire. That is why I am now committed to developing a centre of cancer care in Worcester that will see not one, but three linear accelerators in the radio therapy unit at the Royal; and, having achieved that, is why I am keen to see the 3CCN boundaries redrawn to include north Worcestershire. That will result in clear patient pathways and a strengthening centre of excellence in Worcestershire. It will also give Kidderminster Hospital an opportunity to develop more services locally."