HEALTH watchdogs in Gwent fear cancer patients across Wales are falling behind their counterparts in England for cutting edge radiotherapy treatment.

Aneurin Bevan (formerly Gwent) Community Health Council will raise the issue of provision of IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy) in Wales with NHS chiefs.

Plans to upgrade radiotherapy equipment, known as Linacs, are part of multi-milion pound proposals to increase radiotherapy capacity in south Wales.

But a business case supporting the proposal, recently submitted to the Assembly, is based on full implementation by 2015.

That is three years later than the date by which IMRT will be available to patients in all of England’s cancer network areas, and the CHC is questioning why Wales appears slow off the mark in introducing one of the latest developments in radiotherapy.

IMRT enables more accurate focusing of tumour treatment, minimising potential damage to surrounding tissue or other organs. This is particularly important for head and neck cancers, and prostate cancer.

Up to 40 per cent of patients might benefit from IMRT, but the CHC has learned through its representative at Velindre NHS Trust that only two south Wales patients a month are currently receiving it, while it is fully available in almost half of England’s cancer treatment centres.

The need to invest in more Linacs to meet demand for radiotherapy in south Wales was recognised several years ago. Plans involve increasing capacity at the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff, and establishing a satellite radiotherapy unit at another hospital in the region.

But a tightening of health budgets slowed the progress of this and other investments, amid concerns over affordability, while the question of where to site the satellite unit remains unsolved.

Abergavenny’s Nevill Hall and Merthyr Tydfil’s Prince Charles Hospitals are the two frontrunners but a decision on a preferred site remains months away.