PRESSURE is growing on health chiefs to save a county cancer ward, amid fears its closure could be a `done deal'.

The chief executive of St Richard's Hospice in Worcester believes the Macmillan Unit at Evesham Community Hospital will close, despite assurances the move will go out to public consultation.

Mark Jackson said the loss of the ward - the only bedded cancer unit in south Worcestershire - would be a terrible loss, but said he was sure it was `a given'. It was opened by the Princess Royal in 1995 following a hugely successful fund-raising campaign led by the Worcester News' sister title the Evesham Journal in which readers raised £50,000.

The ward has continued to care for 100 patients a year, but now South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust has proposed its closure as one of 19 cuts to help plug a £13m funding shortfall - caused by the Government taking money from its budget to help pay off national NHS debts.

The PCT denies the decision has already been taken.

The proposal has left the local community outraged and campaigners have already launched a Save Our Services campaign.

A new £5.25m St Richard's Hospice is due to open in Spetchley, Worcester in October with ten palliative care beds - but Mr Jackson said it would not be enough to cope with demand.

"The Worcestershire palliative care strategy endorsed by the NHS has identified the need for 40 palliative care beds in Worcestershire," he said.

"When the new St Richard's Hospice opens in Worcester in October there will be ten which, with the five at Evesham, would have gone some way to making the 20 needed in the south of the county.

"To close Evesham which provides vital care would be such a waste - and all to save only about £140,000."

Mr Jackson also said he was getting fed up with claims from health chiefs that the money to fund the unit would return in 2007.

"If the Macmillan Unit is closed it will mean a loss of a team of dedicated and specially trained nurses and we wouldn't get them back," he added.

"I don't blame the Primary Care Trust as this was a national decision to top-slice their funding, but I believe that the closure is a given as otherwise, funds will have to be found by making cuts somewhere else."

Former Evesham Hospital nurse Jean Lowe, whose husband Oliver was cared for in the Macmillan Unit before he died, said she was outraged at the plans.

"I am sad to say that I agree with Mr Jackson's view," said the 78-year-old, from Evesham. I believe that the decision has been made and it won't matter what anyone says - the health bosses don't tell us the truth.

"I have never heard a bad word said about the unit which offers a peaceful and restful environment, and is desperately needed."

Coun Frances Smith, chairman of the Evesham Hospital Save our Services (SOS) campaign, urged people to make their views known when public consultation starts by writing to Paul Bates, the chief executive of South Worcestershire PCT, and copying it to the Strategic Health Authority.

"We are absolutely devastated to think that we may lose these vital services," she said.

A spokesman for South Worcestershire NHS Trust said the closure was definitely not a done deal.

"We haven't even gone out to public consultation yet," she added.

"The dates will be decided at the end of this week."

Also going out to public consultation are plans to close the Bredon ward and rehabilitation unit at Evesham, axing sexual health clinics across the county and changing the physiotherapy service.