Patients in Wales and Scotland could be invited to Oxfordshire for eye operations at mobile units that are visiting county towns.

The idea has been suggested by independent experts, who warn that the privately-run treatment centres will become surplus to requirements, representing a financial burden to NHS managers and threatening the Oxford Eye Hospital.

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris, who has campaigned against the mobile centres, said the findings backed his concerns.

Finnamore Management Consultants suggest that people from other areas of the UK should be invited to use the units, to help prevent them "destabilising" the Radcliffe Infirmary-based NHS service.

The recommendation is part of a review of eye services commissioned by Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority. It could mean patients are asked to travel up to 400 miles to visit Oxfordshire for one-day cataract operations. Despite this, the mobile units would still travel around the UK, including Banbury and an unconfirmed town in south Oxfordshire, so people can have routine surgery.

The Government launched the mobile unit scheme to reduce a backlog for cataract operations.

But doctors claim there are no long waiting lists in Oxfordshire and that if patients are sent to mobile units it will take work and revenue away from the RI.

Finnamore's consultants confirmed that if patients moved to the mobile units, the RI could lose between £318,000 and £521,000, between six and 10 per cent of its annual income.

Consultant opthalmologist Mr Vinod Kumar, of University of Wales Hospital, in Cardiff, said Wales had its own mobile eye centres and hospitals had already reduced cataract operation waits to below four months.

Non-executive directors at South West Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust have opposed the scheme, claiming they could be forced to pay up front for a private service which patients may not use.

They rejected the plans last year, but claim they were forced to re-consider following pressure from Ministers.