HEALTH authority chiefs have put the controversial proposal to move a vital after-screening breast cancer assessment clinic from Basingstoke to Winchester on hold.

On Tuesday, members of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Strategic Health Authority voted to give health professionals and managers a month to come up with an alternative plan which would keep after-screening assessment on both sites but put them under one management. They will now discuss the issue at their next meeting on November 12.

The original merger plan required 400 women per year to make the 40-mile round trip to Winchester for assessment tests. These are for women whose screening results suggest they may have cancer.

But the boss of breast screening in Winchester was not entirely happy with the meeting's decision. Consultant radiologist Dr Jane Cheetham warned she did not believe the Basingstoke and Winchester hospital trusts concerned would be eager to hand over management of assessment.

She also criticised the authority's director of public health, Dr Simon Tanner, for asking the two units to concoct a viable scheme.

She said: "We have had this option in the past and it was not acceptable."

She added the two units will have to develop identical approaches to a very sensitive area of work.

Dr Cheetham said: "It is not just a case of adding up the figures. We will discuss every assessment. You will have to have at least weekly meetings of about 15 people and somebody will have to be doing the travelling. But whatever the outcome, we will work with it."

Dr Tanner introduced the new proposal. He told health authority directors that new guidance from the National Screening Pro-gramme meant split sites could now be considered in achieving a large enough sample of women to be sure screening assessment was working properly. He explained that neither Winchester nor Basingstoke was individually big enough to meet new standards.

Dr Tanner said the participation of the public and The Gazette-backed campaign to keep assessment in Basingstoke had been significant in the health authority's change of heart.

He told the meeting: "None of this would have happened had the public not said access was extremely important. We have here a situation in which the public demonstrated a firm view that this is a service they wish to see retained on both sites."

Board member Professor Tony Watson asked whether there would be "internal battles" ahead over the headquarters for the new set-up. Mr Tanner said he could not "guarantee"it, but he added he could see no reason why there should be.

Basingstoke and North Hants Community Health Council chairman Frank Rust said he had noticed there were differences between professionals in Basing-stoke and Winchester and hoped the consultation had not made it worse.

He said he was "almost 99 per cent sure" his statutory watchdog committee would back the dual site/single management option.