THE Guildford and Waverley Primary Care Trust (PCT) has been fiercely criticised by the patients of Frimley Park Hospital over its proposals to transfer a cancer unit to the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford The 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. Frimley Park Hospital's Upper GI Support Patients' Support Group has met to discuss plans to continue its fight against the move that it believes will compromise the standards of healthcare available to cancer sufferers. Spokesman Gordon Butcher, 78, said: "The GI cancer unit at Frimley Park has been going very well and there is a fantastic team there. I had an operation there myself six years ago and the treatment I received was very good. "I think it is awful news that they will transferring it when it has taken time to get a team working so well there. I'm a governor of the hospital and I can confirm that many people involved with the hospital are against this plan." Dr Ruth Milton, medical director of the PCT, is keen to reassure patients that healthcare standards will not be compromised if the transfer of the unit goes ahead next year. "We understand the support group's concerns," she said. "The situation is that specialist services for upper gastrointestinal cancers are provided across a network. "The cancer centre is based at The Royal Surrey County Hospital and different parts of the service are provided at localities, Frimley Park Hospital being one of them. In order to fulfil national requirements for developing quality services, there is a requirement to provide a special 'hub' of the specialist team and it is this development of a specialist team that is taking place at the Royal Surrey. "It is not a case of services being closed, that is completely incorrect. Services are actually being developed and improved by actually bringing the consultants together so that you've got them all working in one place. "The aim is to make the service better and the person to gain most is the patient," she added. Jeremy Hunt, MP for South West Surrey, who has been outspoken in his criticisms of the PCT over its proposals to close local hospital beds as part of cost-cutting measures, said: "I sympathise with the many patients who have had such great treatment at Frimley Park Hospital's Cancer Unit that could now face the extra distress of having to travel to The Royal Surrey County Hospital. "Along with the Guildford and Waverley Campaign Group, I shall be looking at the way the PCT is organising its services. "This is something which should also be looked into by the new Surrey-wide PCT when it is established."