Victory!

Gazette readers who have been battling to keep a vital breast cancer assessment service in Basingstoke have cause for celebration today after health bosses bowed to people power and agreed that it should stay put.

Months of public pressure - including a major Gazette campaign - paid off on Tuesday when health authority chiefs finally scrapped their plan to move after-screening assessment from Basingstoke to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

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 that the assessment services will continue at both Basingstoke and Winchester but with a new single management structure under the control of the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust.

Breast surgeon Anne Stebbing, who has led the Basingstoke battle to keep breast assessment at the town hospital, is delighted with the verdict.

She said: "I'm glad they have brought the uncertainty to an end. There is no doubt the public response, helped by The Gazette, has made a difference. There is still a lot of work to do in putting the two centres together and now everyone wants it to happen as quickly as possible. The aim will be that patients don't notice any difference."

Miss Stebbing admitted she was disappointed that Basingstoke will not be managing the new structure which, she said, would have been "the icing on the cake".

The area's two MPs also welcomed the news that breast cancer assessment will stay in Basingstoke.

Sir George Young, whose North West Hampshire constituency includes Basingstoke hospital, said: "I am delighted that there have been second thoughts.

"It is a recognition of the effect of the campaign by patients, staff, administrators at Basingstoke hospital and The Gazette that these services will not now go to Winchester."

Basingstoke MP Andrew Hunter said: "This is a compromise way forward which I was hoping they would find. What matters is the continuation of the service in Basingstoke."

The change of heart by the authority comes after a series of public meetings across its entire patch - including two well-attended events in Basingstoke.

Gazette readers also let the authority know 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.

On Monday, The Gazette reported how the statutory watchdog Basingstoke and North Hants Community Health Council had indicated support for the new split site plan. Members had threatened to refer the original plan to Health Secretary Alan Milburn if it got the go-ahead.

CHC chairman Frank Rust, who chaired one of the public meetings, said: "The important thing is that the assessment unit is in Basingstoke for women under stress."

Hart district councillor Roger Jones, a fierce critic of the orginal plan, said he "could not be more delighted" with the outcome.

He added: "I think we should thank the strategic health authority for listening to the people and we should thank The Gazette for its role."