Winchester cancer patients are being forced to wait up to three months for radiotherapy.

Alarming new figures show that most at the Wessex Radiotherapy Centre in Southampton are not being treated within maximum waiting periods set down by the Government.

Highlighting the problem, Winchester MP, Mark Oaten, said: "I am extremely concerned to see, in some areas, a complete failure to meet recommended medical acceptable practice.

"I don't blame the consultants or those working in radiotherapy, where the pressure must be enormous. But it is totally unacceptable for cancer patients to be put at risk in this way."

According to health watchdogs, of 135 non-emergency patients needing radiotherapy in September, only three were treated within maximum waiting times.

Women needing post-operative breast cancer treatment have been hardest hit and all waited more than 28 days, the maximum set out in the guidelines. On average, patients were not treated for over two months and one woman waited longer than three months for radiotherapy.

Mr Oaten met with Winchester and Central Hampshire Community Health Council to discuss the figures. "I asked the hospital what plans they had to use other centres to help relieve the pressure and offered any assistance I could give in lobbying for more support."

Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust is responsible for the Wessex Radiotherapy Centre. Spokesman, Peter Campion said: "We recognise waiting times are unacceptably long. We have not had enough radiotherapy machines and the ones we have work harder and longer than any in the country, but there are simply not enough of them."

"We are in the first phase of building a new cancer care centre at Southampton General Hospital, which will give us at least one more radiotherapy machine."

The £20m first phase is expected to open next summer. But the second, costing another £50m and providing six extra radiotherapy machines, is unlikely to be operational for two or three years.

"We're using support capacity elsewhere, such as King Edward's Hospital, Midhurst," added Mr Campion. "But they don't have enough to meet the demands we could put on them. It's not an ideal situation but money is being invested to improve things."