PROTESTERS fighting to save a highly valued cancer unit at Frimley Park Hospital are pleading with the government's health secretary Patricia Hewitt to help them with their campaign. The Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust (PCT) is currently finalising plans to transfer the upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancer unit from Frimley Park Hospital to the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford by October 2006. Last Thursday, Ms Hewitt was quoted as saying that local communities must have a strong say in the future of local health services and facilities. Campaigners against the transfer gathered on Monday night when the Friends of Cancer Services group, which comprises patients, staff, consultants, governors and members of Frimley Park Hospital, pledged to continue their campaign to stop the transfer of the highly valued cancer unit. Alex Crawford, a public governor for the Frimley Park Hospital (NHS) Foundation Trust, said: "We held a meeting to support the provision of high-quality cancer services at Frimley Park Hospital that best meets the needs of patients in the catchment area and those outside who choose Frimley. We were united in our determination to mount an effective campaign to achieve this object, which puts the interests and the wishes of cancer patients as top priority over centrally devised plans on which no one has been consulted. "We are seeking support from our local authorities whose scrutiny committees are being invited to examine the plan to close the upper GI cancer unit at Frimley and create new upper GI facilities at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford by October 2006." The Friends of Cancer Services group is now appealing to Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, to review the decision by the PCT to transfer the cancer unit. "The conflict between this government policy and the proposed closure of the upper GI cancer facilities at Frimley Park Hospital has arisen because NHS bureaucrats have failed to consult local patients and local communities," said Mr Crawford. "We believe that the decision should be subject to a full consultation with the public, patients and staff. That is why we are asking for the decision to be reviewed." Protesters against the transfer fear that it will compromise the standard of healthcare currently provided at Frimley. "We accept the NHS cancer peer review report stating that the upper GI unit is a centre of excellence and we do not see how it would be sensible to create a new unit at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, that could take years to reach the same standard of excellence, even if it was financially viable," said Mr Crawford. The financial viability of the transfer is also causing a continued debate, especially at a time when health chiefs have been outspoken about their concerns over the lack of government funding to maintain health facilities in hospitals across the Waverley borough. "The plan will cost several hundred thousand pounds to implement just when the Surrey and Sussex Health Authority (SSHA) is losing money," said Mr Crawford. "The new unit could go on to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds more each year in the future. We also believe that the decision could mean that all cancer services, currently provided at Frimley, will be closed and then recreated at the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford at huge cost, which the NHS cannot afford. Yet Mr Crawford is sceptical about the possibility of the PCT's decision being reversed. "It is clearly going to be very difficult to reverse the decision by the Cancer Network Policy Board of the SSHA. However, we believe that we are acting in the best interests of local patients and for the future of Frimley Park Hospital as a leading foundation trust that is one of the best in the country and that has the best rating from the healthcare commission by seeking to retain the upper GI cancer unit."