A WORCESTERSHIRE county councillor has called for people across the county to lobby for a radiotherapy machine to be based at a Worcester hospital.

Currently people who need radiotherapy treatment have to travel to the oncology department at Cheltenham General Hospital but a 3 Counties Cancer Network initiative could see another machine based either at the existing centre, the Worcestershire Royal Hospital or the Hereford County Hospital.

Peter Pinfield has tabled a motion urging the council to agree to give total support to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee to try and ensure the machine comes to Worcester, and he hopes the issue will be debated at a full council meeting this Thursday.

The 3 Counties Cancer Network, which provides cancer care to Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, South Worcestershire and part of Powys, will choose where the radiotherapy machine - the sixth of its kind for the region - will go this Spring.

Coun Pinfield said: "Thousands of Worcestershire people are dependent on a cancer service that, currently, all too often leads them and their carers to have to undertake long journeys to Birmingham and Cheltenham.

"The 3 Counties Network is about to decide where the next machine and its supporting services will be located.

"I passionately believe it should be Worcestershire. We must all act together to ensure it happens."

Coun Pinfield's motion also requests the council's executive and leader should be given the authority to lobby all those who could influence the final decision.

Worcestershire's conservative parliamentary team have also called for the machine to be based in Worcester.