OPERATIONS for some women's cancers are likely to be switched to a Leeds hospital from Calderdale, it has been revealed.
Patients from the Huddersfield and Halifax area will have to travel to St James's Hospital in Leeds for treatment on some types of cancer, instead of having an operation locally.
Health officials have confirmed the plan, which has worried some patients.
Mrs Jenny Cooper, of Quebec Road, Outlane, learned of the plan while being treated for cancer at Calderdale Royal Hospital.
She was highly impressed with the service in Halifax and was unhappy with the prospect of future operations taking place at St James's.
She said: "All that expertise at the Calderdale Royal is going to be wasted if operations are transferred to Leeds.
"Someone looking at a map may think that Leeds is not that far from Huddersfield.
"But if you live in Marsden and have no transport you are snookered."
Mrs Cooper, 59, a former teacher at Taylor Hill Children's Centre, spent nine days in the Calderdale Royal after having a hysterectomy and had to return twice with complications after she had been discharged.
Her grown-up children and partner Fred Raine visited her regularly.
"They would not have come to Leeds as often as they did to Halifax," she said.
"I would have felt very isolated.
A spokesman for the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust, which runs the Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, said: "The trust would like to reassure our patients and the public that not all gynaecological cancer surgery will be transferred to St James's.
"In an attempt to improve services for gynaecological cancers the Department of Health has issued guidance to the NHS on providing care and treatment for the less common forms.
"The trust is therefore currently exploring whether some specialist gynaecological cancer services will need to be delivered at our nearest designated cancer centre at St James's in order to provide the best care possible to our patients."
