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Government and opposition MPs are urging NHS bosses to halt the privatisation of cancer scanning services in Oxford, which doctors are warning will damage patients’ health.

Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs in the area have united in protest at the deal. The private firm InHealth has controversially been handed a contract to deliver positron emission computerised tomography (PET-CT) scanning in the Thames Valley.

Cancer specialists say PET-CT scanning plays a vital role in helping them diagnose the disease, track whether treatment is proving successful at shrinking tumours and guide surgery.

NHS England has sparked anger by taking the service away from Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS trust’s Churchill hospital, despite its international reputation for cancer care.

NHS cancer centre loses scanning contract to private firm Read more

In a related move, the Guardian can reveal that NHS PET-CT scanning service in south-east London will also be part-privatised. Alliance Medical is part of a consortium that has been awarded the contract, alongside King’s College hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS trusts.

Victoria Prentis, the Tory MP for Banbury, has written to Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, saying she was “extremely concerned’ that patient care will suffer as a result of the switch in Oxford.

Multi-disciplinary meetings at the trust – at which each patient’s treatment is discussed in detail – could be affected by OUH no longer proving every element of cancer care, she said. “Outsourcing a key service to an offsite provider could make it more difficult for the necessary clinicians from the various disciplines (including surgeons, oncologists, radiotherapists) to meet to decide on the best course of treatment for each patient,” she wrote.

InHealth beat OUH to the seven-year contract partly because it pledged to provide PET-CT scanning from new sites in Swindon and Milton Keynes, as well as Oxford.

Prentis was also “dismayed” that NHS England had given InHealth the contract without, she claimed, undertaking proper consultation or talking to Oxfordshire MPs.

Oxford East Labour MP Anneliese Dodds, whose seat includes the Churchill, has written to NHS England chair Lord Prior – a Tory peer – demanding a halt to PET-CT privatisation and a debate on how best to provide the service.

Layla Moran, the Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, also urged a halt. “This is no way to be treating vulnerable cancer patients. NHS England’s insensitivity is a real cause for concern, especially regarding appointment availability, service quality and distance of travel,” she said.

Tory ex-minister Ed Vaizey, the MP for Didcot and Wantage, said: “Whilst in principle I do not oppose competitive tendering for medical services I am concerned about the handling of this tender service by NHS England. Local patient groups have raised with me several potentially troubling issues with the new provider.”

OUH doctors have voiced their anger at the deal, too. Nick Maynard, a surgeon at the trust, has tweeted his opposition, saying: “If InHealth take over our PET CT service it will undoubtedly cause clinical harm to our patients. This cannot be allowed to proceed.

“Let us be absolutely clear – if this goes ahead, it will lead to patient harm.”

An oncologist at the Churchill said: “I find this very worrying. We use PET CTs regularly to assess for hidden cancer or disease response. Privatisation of this vital service will only result in the detriment of care to my patients.”

NHS England has been “stupid” to outsource the service, said Tim Goodacre, a plastic surgeon at OUH. “I cannot believe we are seeing this sort of political ideology motivated stupidity from our health service managers. This particular decision merits an urgent ‘pause’ and transparent open review. This must be stopped”, he tweeted.

• This article was amended on 15 March 2019 to change a mention of cancer screening, to cancer scanning.