BUILDING two radiotherapy centres for cancer patients miles apart in Worcester and Hereford will not endanger lives, health chiefs stress.

Worcestershire County Council’s health overview and scrutiny committee was concerned that having two sites would mean there was just one linear accelerator machine in each city and if one broke down there would be no back-up.

However, Paul Bates, chief executive of the county’s primary care trust, said the equipment was far more reliable now and the decision was backed by leading radiologist Michael Williams and patient groups.

The two satellite sites will put an end to long journeys to the oncology centre in Cheltenham for patients. It is the first time units with just one accelerator will have been used in the UK. The machines, housed in thick bunkers, use radiation to attack cancer cells.

Addressing health chiefs at a meeting at County Hall, committee chairman Marcus Hart said: “We were told only eight weeks ago there was no way we could have one satellite unit at Worcester and one at Hereford, that it was clinically unsafe and there would be major problems if one of the accelerators broke down. We have seen the most fundamental U-turn possible.”

In reply Mr Bates said: “A decision has to be made so at least one part of the Midlands can get an improved service. We can’t leave this another five years. I would be horrified by anything that paralyses the decision-making process.”

In Worcester the plan is to build the new radiotherapy unit by the postgraduate centre at Worcestershire Royal Hospital or put it in a new wing.

The committee was told there had been discussions with the Arden Cancer Network about it providing a second accelerator at the Royal in future, to be shared by patients from both cancer networks.