Paul Bates, Chief Executive of NHS Worcestershire, yesterday announced plans for a new Cancer Strategy. In a document that will be considered by the NHS Worcestershire Board this month, before going to a year long public consultation, proposals will be put forward to develop an extended cancer care unit in Worcestershire.
This will be delivered in partnership with the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
Worcestershire patients requiring treatment for cancer currently travel to Wolverhampton, Coventry or Cheltenham depending on where they live in the county. The proposals in the new draft Strategy would see much of this treatment centralised and fewer people having to travel long distances.
The announcement came on the same day that Conservative Leader David Cameron announced the Conservative draft election manifesto. Key to the Conservative pledges is to protect spending on the NHS, and to maintain healthcare as David Cameron's top priority.
Mark Garnier, Wyre Forest's Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, said of the NHS Worcestershire announcement: "I am delighted to hear this news. I, and my colleagues from around the county, have been campaigning for improved cancer care in Worcestershire for some time. We had recent success with the sighting of a new radiotherapy unit at Worcester, and we are fully supportive of Paul Crawford's campaign to keep head and neck cancer surgery at the Worcester Royal.
"This proposed Cancer Strategy consultation is incredibly good news for the county as a whole. I have been keen for Worcestershire to become a centre of excellence in cancer care for some time, and this document will open the debate on this important issue. It is certainly my intention to help Paul Bates and the NHS Worcestershire to achieve their ambitions to both define and then achieve their goals.
"It also gives Kidderminster treatment centre an opportunity to participate in the delivery of cancer services by locating some of the treatments at Kidderminster, and it is certainly my intention to work with the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust to explore every possibility of using Kidderminster for this important treatment."
The Conservative draft health manifesto can be found here.