BASINGSTOKE hospital chiefs are to step up the battle against breast cancer.

Last Friday, The Gazette revealed that breast cancer survival rates in the North and Mid Hampshire Health Authority area - which Basingstoke and Deane is part of - had decreased by the second worst amount in the country.

The figures appeared in the new NHS performance tables but local health authority chiefs said there might be a problem with the quality of the data.

Now Basingstoke hospital spokeswoman Gina Lilley has told The Gazette that the hospital is planning either to take on a second consultant to tackle breast cancer or to link up with another hospital to provide extra cover.

She said: "We don't have a huge problem now, but we may well link up with another hospital to make sure it is 100 per cent. Occasionally, it can be difficult if the consultant - Miss Stebbing - has gone on holiday or left the country."

Although surgery is performed at Basingstoke hospital, radiotherapy is provided at Southampton, which has recently failed to meet targets for treatment after surgery.

The two health authorities covering Portsmouth and Southampton are close to North and Mid Hants in being "significantly poorer than average" for survival rates.

The latest tables also show a 1.9 per cent drop in the number of suspected breast cancer patients seen by a consultant at Basingstoke hospital within two weeks of referral from a GP.

But Mrs Lilley said the figure was only from a single three-month period. She said: "W're normally in the high 90s and the figure for last month was 100 per cent."

She added: "The majority of diagnoses are made well within the month."

She said figures were not kept about the waiting time from diagnosis to surgery or treatment, but the aim was to commence within a month.