THE Royal Liverpool Hospital is going ahead with plans to try to move Merseyside’s cancer services from Wirral to Liverpool.

It would see Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology (CCO) relocating to the Royal’s site in Prescot Street, near the city centre.

Health chiefs stressed that no proposals had been drawn up but board papers seen by the Daily Post reveal regular meetings are being held about the move.

The Wirral hospital is one of the largest cancer centres in the UK carrying out radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The proposal was first put to the Merseyside and Cheshire primary care boards in 2008 by cancer specialist Prof Mark Baker.

His report said that most oncology services “should be relocated from Clatterbridge to Liverpool”.

He said this would mean all Merseyside patients had fair access to cancer care and that expertise would be centred in one place.

Frank Field, MP for Birkenhead, defended the merits of the Clatterbridge site in 2009.

He said: “Previously all the Wirral MPs have defended our commitment to the Clatterbridge site.

“If the board can now convince us that it is in the clear interests of patients that we rethink where services can best be provided from, we will obviously be anxious to listen. But patients must come first and then we need to ensure that staff support any proposed changes.”

Hospital board papers read: “The Chair (Judith Greensmith) referred to the Strategy Overview Group meeting held with Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology (CCO) and added that she was pleased to report that a second meeting to discuss relocation of CCO on the Royal site had been scheduled.”