ANGER is growing over public consultation on the threat to cancer services at Mount Vernon Hospital.

Two plans put forward for debate by Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority (BHSHA) propose moving Mount Vernon's cancer centre to either Hemel Hempstead Hospital or a new hospital to be built in Hatfield. Both have provoked strong opposition in Harrow, where many people want the centre to stay where it is.

At a meeting of Harrow Council's health and social care sub-committee held on Monday to agree a response to the BHSHA, Owen Cock of Harrow Community Health Council said the consultation was flawed, and he had written to the Secretary of State for Health calling on him to investigate. The process was not exploring all the options, as the public had no chance to vote for the status quo.

Mike Turner, chairman of Community Voice, a federation of residents' groups, quoted the Health and Social Care Act in support of his view that users of the cancer services were not being consulted properly.

Councillors decided to ask the Prime Minister to intervene as the consultation was deeply flawed, and Councillor Lurline Champagnie (Conservative) called for a judicial review and a debate in the House of Commons.

Andrew Morgan, acting chief executive of the BHSHA, said the consultation began in 2001 and that people were aware of the proposals then. But the consultation period might be extended and a questionnaire was available to everyone who wanted to voice concerns.

The concerns about flawed consultation echoed views expressed at a public meeting held by Harrow Primary Care Trust at Harrow Leisure Centre on Thursday evening last week, at which Neville Hughes, president of South Harrow and Roxeth Residents' Association, a constituent body of Community Voice, led calls for the future of the cancer centre to be the subject of a totally separate consultation process to the rest of the BHSHA's proposals.

"The 111-page consultation document devotes just four pages to cancer and doesn't mention the Gray Cancer Institute or the Paul Strickland Scanner Centre," he pointed out.

BHSHA held a public meeting at Harrow Arts Centre last night (Wednesday) and Harrow PCT is to hold a second public meeting at Pinner Village Hall on May 15. The PCT will meet in public at the arts centre on May 27 to decide its response.

May 1, 2003 10:30