A ‘CENTRE of excellence’ for breast services would be created at Wycombe Hospital under NHS plans, with new state-of-the-art equipment.

It would improve on the current service, providing digital imaging, breast screening, follow-up assessments and specialist counselling.

Expert staff would all be based in one place, so patients can have all their tests done at the same time.

This would mean patients from the north of the county travelling to Wycombe for initial assessments and appointments at a specialist unit.

The proposal is part of a major reorgansiation of hospital services in Bucks. Click the link below for the main story.

Meanwhile, separate plans have been drawn up to move complex vascular surgery out of Wycombe - to create a specialist centre at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

However, the preferred option is for Wycombe Hospital to retain carotid endarterectomy operations - which prevent strokes caused by carotid artery disease.

Other procedures, such as emergency aortic aneurysm repairs, planned aneurysm repairs and bypass of arteries in the groin would be moved to Oxford - affecting about 250 patients per year.