SPECIALIST cancer surgery could be moved from Southend to Colchester, leaving patients facing an 80-mile round trip for operations.

Plans have been announced to close one of Essex’s two surgery centres for urological cancers, affecting the bladder, kidney, prostate and testicles.

Councillors from all over Essex have been asked to examine the issue and choose if Essex’s sole centre should be at Southend Hospital, or Colchester General Hospital.

Borough councillor John Lamb, who sits on the borough’s Health and Wellbeing Board, is gearing up to fight to keep the service in Southend – with the Echo today launching its own a campaign to make sure this happens.

Mr Lamb said: “I believe we have a good centre in Southend and I believe we should keep it here.

“The last thing people want is to travel too far when they have a serious illness.

“There should be funding for both Colchester and Southend to remain open.

“They are too far apart for people travelling from north Essex to have to come to south Essex and vice-versa.

“We need the two units and I am not in favour of either of them having to close.”

Joe Cooke, who is a public governor at Southend Hospital, said, given the right resources, Southend could become a centre of excellence for urological surgery.

He said: “Personally, I would welcome Southend becoming a centre of excellence for this.

As long as we have the resources, manpower and equipment I see no problem with it.

“There is a trend for ensuring we have the right equipment and experts in the one location and we are not opposed to that, as a concept.

Clearly we would like to be the centre, but I don’t like at all anything that puts trusts in competition.”

Southend Hospital says the decision making process is at a very early stage.

Hospital chief operating officer Jon Findlay said: “We are very proud of our urology service, which has been developed over many years and offers local patients access to many of the latest techniques and treatment options.

“We are making further investments in our urology department and have just started building a new urology outpatient centre, which will open in July.”

Essex County Council, Southend Council and Thurrock Council are to set up a special committee to look at the issue and make recommendations.

An Essex County Council report on the issue explains: “As a result of the guidelines, NHS England will be looking for just one specialist surgical centre for each cancer.”

A Southend Council spokesman said the borough councillors who will be involved in the process would be chosen at a people scrutiny committee on April 14.

PROPOSALS for the whole of Essex to be served by a single specialist urology surgery centre are the result of anew report from the Government body, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

The Improving Outcomes Guidance document recommends each centre should serve at least a million people Southend Hospital chief operating officer Jon Findlay said: “We r e c o g n i s e the need, periodically, to review the best way to provide services so patients can be offered the best treatments available.

“We are aware of and have been involved in the proposed review of specialised surgery for patients with urological cancer.

“These discussions are at a very early stage and we are working with our commissioners and partners in other hospitals to review the options and to agree the best way forward.”

SOUTHEND Hospital’s urology department offers pioneering surgery for patients suffering from cancer of the kidneys, urethra, bladder and prostate.

The hospital offers recontructive bladder operations, which avoid patients having to be fitted with a stoma bag, bladder augmentation for patients with overactive bladders, plus cutting-edge surgery for incontinence.

The cancer centre has a specialist urology ward on the main hospital site for patients recovering from major surgery. It also has plans to open a dedicated outpatient department this summer.

Patients can be seen at the onestop assessment clinic, where investigations are performed in single, half-day session. The hospital also offers a fast-track clinic for suspected cancers and the very latest prostate cancer treatments.

Although based at the hospital’s main site in Prittlewell Chase, the department also runs clinics in the community and an extended service at Brentwood Community Hospital.

Hospital supporters are in the middle of the £600,000 Southend Hospital Keyhole Cancer Appeal, which aims to provide a modern laparoscopic (keyhole surgery) theatre at Southend.

Cancer patients are also supported at the hospital by the purpose built £650,000 Macmillan Centre, jointly funded by the Macmillan and Southend Hospital charities.

THE Echo has been at the forefront of making sure health services stay in the area.

We successfully campaigned to keep blood testing services in south Essex, when GP-requested pathology services were in danger of being moved 90 miles away in December 2012.

This would have meant test samples being transported by road to Bedford, causing major delays in patients getting their results back.

Nearly 120 hospital consultants backed the Echo and 10,000 signed our petition to save the service.

As a result of our campaign to keep the services at Southend and Basildon hospitals, NHS bosses they should remain locally.