SOME cancer patients who receive in-patient treatment at Airedale Hospital will have to travel further afield for care in the future.

The in-patient oncology service on Ward 3, which deals with more urgent complications following chemotherapy treatment, will be transferred to Bradford Royal Infirmary within the next few months.

These complications could include extremely high temperatures - higher than 38 degrees - prolonged diarrhoea or vomiting.

However, patients who have received chemotherapy for haematological cancers (such as leukaemia and lymphoma) will continue to receive treatment at Airedale.

While those running the unit say they are determined each aspect of the move and its implications will be closely monitored, some patients fear healthcare could be compromised.

The decision to transfer the department comes after an extensive review of the non-surgical oncology services within Airedale NHS Trust.

Following the review, it was decided the haematology and oncology day unit (HODU), which treated out-patients, would remain at Airedale.

For the past 20 years, the cancer treatment service at Airedale Hospital has been run virtually single-handedly by consultant medical oncologist, Dr Michael Crawford.

"I have been working hard over the past 20 years establishing an oncology service in an area where people said there ought not to be one," explained Dr Crawford.

"When I started at Airedale, it was extremely rare for an NHS hospital of its size to have such a service. As my work has grown over the years, it has become apparent that it requires more than one consultant with the limited supporting staff available.

"The fact that I have been blessed with good health and the fact that I have not taken all my annual and study leave entitlement has kept the service running."

Dr Crawford explained that the review strongly advocated that Airedale's services should be developed in tandem with those in Bradford.

He added: "This is happening, so for the last four months Bradford consultants have been doing some work in Airedale and I have been doing some in Bradford. There are still too few doctors in post and there has been no real increase in the consultant availability at Airedale as yet."

His main concern was that quality patient care remained top priority.

"More than 40 per cent of our patients come from North Yorkshire and East Lancashire and we are very much aware that it is essential that people who live in these areas do not lose out.

"We intend to ensure equity of service so that the residents of Hubberholme and those of Heaton have equal access to consultations, to monitoring of treatment and to emergency care for cancer," he said.

"This should happen in the not-too-distant future and will secure the quality and stability of service to patients in its catchment area. Indeed, more doctors being involved opens up the possibility of more specialisation to increase the quality further."

As part of the changes, Airedale is planning to take on extra nurses to increase the capacity of the day unit and there are further plans to expand HODU to reduce the number of people who need to be admitted for chemotherapy.

Dr Crawford added: "One thing that is certain is that we will be monitoring the changes very closely. The unified in-patient service has not started yet because a lot of work needs to be done to ensure effective transport arrangements etc and to ensure that patients are guaranteed immediate access to the specialised ward at Bradford Royal Infirmary."

Meanwhile, a HODU focus group and patient representatives have prepared a review on Airedale's oncology beds from the patients' perspective. The group's findings and suggestions to enable the service to be run from both hospitals will be highlighted in next week's Craven Herald.