CANCER services will return to Winchester as part of a phased approach to return services to their previous locations prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The service from the Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Basingstoke were moved to BMI Sarum Road during the height of the crisis to allow patients to continue to receive treatment in a ‘clean space’.

During an Ask the NHS meeting organised by MP Steve Brine, chief medical officer Lara Alloway was asked by resident Carole Hastings what was learnings have been taken from delivering chemotherapy during Covid and what services will be in Winchester once the planned new hospital opens.

Dr Alloway said: “Cancer services during Covid we moved from Basingstoke and Winchester to Sarum Road Hospital and the reason we did that was to protect people who are very vulnerable from Covid and catching that infection. We ran our chemotherapy services for just over a year there really successfully.”

She continued: “There were huge advantages in bringing the two services together. We ran a drive-through service for chemotherapy for people to pick up rather than having to come in if they didn’t need to, we did a lot more remote consultations, so video consultations.

“We really reduced the amount of journeys that people had to make and waiting around and saw the benefit of bringing two smallish services together. We also appreciated totally that people needed to feel safe.”

Dr Alloway added: “Our cancer services have now moved out of Sarum Road and the chemotherapy services are being delivered from a separate building on the Basingstoke site before we move back the Winchester services to Winchester and this is a phased approach as we move our services back to where they originated from.

“We have made sure that people have had 24-hour access to advice and make sure they didn’t have to travel if that wasn’t absolutely required.”

Concerns were previously raised that oncology could be moved away from Winchester permanently.