Concerns about facilities at an ageing site that treats many cancer patients from Hitchin and north Herts have led to a new site being earmarked.

Health bosses are considering Watford as a future site for the regional cancer services offered by Mount Vernon, it has emerged.

Mount Vernon – in Northwood, in north London – provides specialist cancer services for patients from Hitchin and all across Hertfordshire, as well as north London, Buckinghamshire, Luton and Bedfordshire.

However there are growing concerns about the ageing buildings at the site, as well as the lack of intensive care facilities or other hospital specialities that can be required by patients.

An independent clinical report, as part of a strategic review commissioned by NHS England, recommended in 2019 that services should move to an acute hospital site.

The report highlighted cancer Mount Vernon's crumbling buildings, out-of-date equipment and staffing problems which led to patients' safety and quality of care being put at risk.

Patients at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre who are acutely unwell or dying were said to have received substandard care due to the fact that it lacked medical expertise and the facilities required to manage them properly - with a recommendation that its services should be moved, the inquiry found at the time.

The family of a cancer patient treated at Mount Vernon told Nub News under condition of anonymity that, despite the best efforts of NHS staff, the site and facilities were 'unfit for purpose' and that conditions felt more 'like a Second World War army barracks.'

Since the bombshell report in 2019 health bosses at NHS England have continued to consider future options for the delivery of cancer services across the region – with Watford emerging as a preferred future site by the programme board.

It is also understood that future proposals could include enhanced access to services, such as chemotherapy, at other sites too.

Sarah Brierley, from the East and North Herts NHS Trust – which runs the Lister Hospital, in Stevenage – said they were 'fully supportive' of the review.

But she said they would be pushing very hard for the inclusion of satellite radiotherapy provision within Stevenage and north Herts.

No funding has been identified for the move, with more detailed work on the feasibility of a move to Watford planned in coming months.

Virtual engagement events on the development of the proposals are already planned for Welwyn Hatfield, Watford, Stevenage, Saint Albans and Hemel Hempstead.

Formal public consultation is expected to start early in 2021 – with a final decision expected to be taken by the end of 2021.

Jessemy Kinghorn, head of partnerships and engagement for NHS England and NHS Improvement, told Herts County Councillors that 10 potential hospital sites had been considered by the board.

But only Watford, she said, had met both the clinical and accessibility criteria that ensured only limited increases in travel times for those travelling by car or public transport from places such as Hitchin and north Herts.

Committee chair councillor Seamus Quilty stressed that the plans were in their 'infancy'.

"This is just at the start – its a marathon that is going to go on here." he said.

"It's going to be a long long time before there is any real decision made."

During the meeting Labour councillor Margaret Eames-Petersen questioned the way travel times had been assessed – pointing to the journeys undertaken by patients from the north and east of the county.

But Ms Kinghorn said that it had been "a massive balancing act" and that moving services to the Lister Hospital in Stevenage would have increased travel times from other areas by 'extraordinary amounts'.

Following the meeting Ms Kinghorn said: "We really want to involve local people in the development of these proposals so that we can use this opportunity to make sure we develop cancer services that improve outcomes for local people."