A PLEDGE to put all of Oxford’s cancer services under the roof of a dedicated £109m cancer unit is under review, the Oxford Mail can reveal.

Meanwhile, equipment has been left to gather dust in a dedicated suite that has remained empty for two years.

In 2009, the Oxford Cancer Centre, based at the Churchill Hospital, was trumpeted as bringing all Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals’ Trust cancer services together in one place.

The move, health bosses claimed, would make life easier for some of the county’s sickest patients.

But the ORH is now reviewing its original plans to relocate head and neck cancer services from the John Radcliffe to the Oxford Cancer Centre in light of what it described as “financial constraints”.

Ralph Goodson, of the Heads2-gether Head and Neck Cancer Support Group, said the trust had not fulfilled its promise.

He said: “I think the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital Trust board may need a doctor. They seem to be suffering from memory loss.

“They have forgotten the promises they made countless times to patients, medical staff and in the press alike.

“Two years after the new cancer centre was opened, they still have not fulfilled their promise to put all cancer services under one roof.

“Thousands of pounds worth of equipment lies unused because they seem incapable of seeing the project through to its conclusion.

“They seem blind to the continued inconvenience that patients suffer, being treated in unsatisfactory conditions at a stressful time and being forced to travel from one site to another to receive treatment.”

But Paul Brennan, ORH’s director of clinical services, insisted all of the gear, which includes medical equipment, tables and chairs was needed and will be used.

Proposals to move the cancer head and neck services to the Oxford Cancer Centre at the Churchill Hospital were agreed by the trust in July 2010, with the intention of switching last month.

Mr Brennan added: “There is also a cost to move the service from the John Radcliffe Hospital.

“As the move will involve splitting the head and neck cancer services from the general services, which will remain on the John Radcliffe site, there will be an additional cost of more than £1.2m per annum to provide the extra rotas of doctors and nurses needed.

“This work has taken time, as the facilities on the Churchill site were not adequate to allow the entire ser-vice to transfer, and there was also a shortage of capital resources to fund the necessary conversion works.”

Sir Jonathan Michael, chief executive of Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said: “No decision has been taken to revise these plans yet, but in the light of the changed circumstances both in terms of capacity at the Churchill Hospital, and in terms of the financial constraints on both the ORH and the NHS generally, the decision must be looked at again.”

Mr Goodson said the ORH board appeared to be “paralysed, incapable of completing the move”.

He said: “The specially-fitted Blenheim Suite has laid empty for two years because they just don’t seem capable of taking the final step to making it happen.

“It all makes me wonder, can we trust the trust?”