AddThis SmartLayers

Health chiefs cave in to Gazette's screening plea

The Basingstoke Gazette has won its campaign to stop a vital breast screening service from being moved out of the town.

The paper has been battling to keep the cancer detection service in Basingstoke since June, when it was revealed that health chiefs wanted to merge it with one in Winchester.

Months of public pressure have now paid off, with health authority chiefs finally deciding to scrap the plan.

The decision has removed the threat that 400 women a year would have had to make at least one 40-mile round trip for the nerve-wracking assessment tests to find out if they had cancer.

The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Strategic Health Authority board agreed the service would continue at both Basingstoke and Winchester but with a new single management structure.

Breast surgeon Anne Stebbing, who originally alerted the paper, said: “There is no doubt the public response, helped by The Gazette, has made a difference.”

Gazette readers showed the authority their opposition by sending in more than 2,300 Gazette Save Our Clinic coupons. Altogether the authority had 3,000 responses to its public consultation, with the vast majority against moving services to Winchester.

Gazette editor Mark Jones said: “The paper is delighted that we have helped keep this vital service in Basingstoke. When we asked our readers to get behind this campaign, they responded in their thousands.

“The health authority has acknowledged that it has bowed to public pressure and the majority of that has come from our readers.”

Back to the campaigns index

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail [email protected]