THE PUBLIC made its opposition loud and clear over plans for Basingstoke's breast assessment clinic to move to Winchester, a crucial health authority meeting was told.

As predicted in this week's Monday Gazette, health chiefs meeting in Southampton this week agreed that after-screening assessment should continue at Basingstoke hospital and should not be shifted to Winchester.

What one Basingstoke doctor has called "the long-running saga" of breast cancer assessment services only came to wider public notice in June this year.

It was then that the new Hampshire and Isle of Wight Health Authority set out its proposals in a document asking for the public's views.

This document said that the Basingstoke and Winchester assessment clinics would have to merge because each only saw half the number of women needed to meet new national standards for accuracy and quality.

The assessment clinics are where tests are conducted on women who have already been through the routine screening programme for the 50 to 64 age group, but whose results show a suspicious abnormality. Sometimes two or three attendances are needed before a diagnosis is made.

The authority said it favoured merger at Winchester because it was closer to resources in Southampton and because women from southern Hampshire might well refuse to travel to Basingstoke.

However, it did not rule Basingstoke out as an option either.

It gave the public until September 20 to come up with their views and announced a series of public meetings across its patch.

Anxious Basingstoke hospital breast screening staff told The Gazette they did not quarrel with the new standards but suggested that Winchester and Basingstoke should stay as separate sites with a new single management.

They said their quality was already very high and pointed out that if only one site were to be chosen, the authority's document admitted Basingstoke would be cheaper and quicker to install.

At Tuesday's meeting, Dr Simon Tanner, the director of public health for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Strategic Health Authority, said: "I don't need reminding that the consultation was very forceful from the public and Community Health Councils in wishing the breast screening assessment service to be retained on both the Winchester and Basingstoke sites."

He added: "The vast majority of responses - either those which were part of The Gazette campaign or individual ones -were on the basis of wishing to retain assessment at both sites."

He said the change of heart which will allow the two services to continue, but with a shared management, was only possible because of new NHS guidance.

Dr Tanner said meetings between all interested parties had taken place since it was agreed last month that the split-site with single management idea would be investigated.

He added: "All the right people in the NHS have been involved in the decision-making and there is unanimous agreement on this."

Dr Tanner said Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust will handle the management of the statistical results for both sites and a single Clinical Director for the combined service is to be appointed.

He explained a project manager will make sure the process runs smoothly and a "partnership board" will ensure "fair play" on the question of appointments.

Dr Tanner said: "I know from my experience that all parties want to make it an exemplary service. I'm confident it does meet the quality service we require."

Health authority chairman Peter Bingham said: "This is a classic example of where public consultation has clearly worked and we have the outcome people were looking for."