CRUCIAL cancer treatments that were in danger of being moved out-of-county will remain in Cornwall after a massive response to an NHS consultation.

More than 11,500 people responded to the NHS England’s national consultation on proposals which would have seen radiotherapy for less common cancers moved out of the Duchy.

The majority (90%) of responses came from Cornwall and the south west, helping to secure the future of the Sunrise Centre at Treliske.

NHS England has now changed its plans and the future of all radiotherapy services at the Sunrise Centre is secured.

“The threat to move services for less common cancers to Plymouth, Exeter or Bristol caused outrage last year, and led to possibly the biggest NHS consultation response ever in the UK,” said Janet Shephard, former head of radiotherapy and trustee of The Sunrise Appeal.

“Together, the people of Cornwall have made a real difference and we’re incredibly proud to say that as a direct result of the campaign, NHS England has confirmed that all patients will continue to receive radiotherapy at the Sunrise Centre in Truro.”

Trustees of the Sunrise Appeal have received confirmation from Consultants at the Centre that patients from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly will not be moved out-of-county for treatment, thanks to the response to the campaign.

“Consultants at the Sunrise Centre had said the proposals would directly affect 200 or more patients a year from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. We simply had to take action to ensure patients could continue to be treated in Cornwall by superb staff, on world class equipment, using advanced techniques,” said Mrs Shephard.

“The support we received was astonishing and as a result NHS England has made substantial changes to their proposals.”

Dr John McGrane, consultant at the Sunrise Centre, said: "The updated NHS England proposals mean that patients will continue to be treated here in Cornwall. We are grateful to the people who responded to the consultation in their thousands saying that they want to continue to have high quality radiotherapy treatment locally."

Mrs Shephard added: “We are all delighted and very proud of what our campaign achieved – the people of Cornwall made their voices heard. We remain committed to raising funds to ensure that the Sunrise Centre maintains a gold standard status into the future."

In the document, NHS England states: “A total of 11,542 online responses to the consultation were received, as well as 675 responses submitted in other formats.

“The majority (90%) of the online survey responses were from the south west.”

“As a result of the concerns expressed that many more people would need to travel further for radiotherapy treatment, NHS England has made a number of significant changes to the proposals. The changes place emphasis on securing improvements through greater collaboration and care protocol standardisation between centres and clinical teams.

"Taken together, these changes mean that:

• People requiring radical radiotherapy for the treatment of a less common cancer can continue to be treated locally

• Clinical teams will be able to maintain their involvement in a broad range of subspecialist cancer treatments, therefore maintaining skillset and expertise

• Local clinical teams within the Network will be empowered to improve services

“The proposals no longer require the centralisation of radical radiotherapy treatments for the less common cancers.”

“It is acknowledged that, in some areas, networks may need to invest in IT infrastructure to reap all the benefits of greater partnership working. NHS England is committed to supporting Networks achieve this.

“The proposed working arrangements of the subspecialist teams and the opportunities for partnership working between centres have been substantially clarified and amended so that the current radiotherapy pathways will be unchanged as a result of implementing the Service Specifications. This means that the way patients access radiotherapy care and treatment will be unchanged (e.g. travel).”