THE battle for a specialist urology cancer centre has begun.

NHS England today invited expressions of interest from hospitals which want to set up the centre.

National guidance introduced by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence requires each centre to cover a population of at least a million people.

Currently, these patients are treated at two hospitals - Colchester and Southend - which provide specialised surgery for prostate, bladder and kidney cancer.

Now it will be centred at just one.

Colchester Hospital University Foundation Trust has declared its interest in having the centre at Colchester General Hospital.

A 8,000 name petition, collected by the Gazette and its sister paper the Essex County Standard, was presented to No 10 Downing Street in support of Colchester's bid.

Supporters argued it was unreasonable to expect cancer patients - and their families - to travel down to Southend for surgery.

A team of surgeons in Colchester are already carrying out trailblazing urology cancer surgery.

Months of discussion have been held between health chiefs and doctors and now an agreement has been reached on the criteria for the service.

It will be commissioned by NHS England which will formally invite the five hospital trusts in Essex to indicate if they wany to bid to run the new service.

The trusts will have until early February to submit their plans to an evaluation panel.

Public engagement will then take place on those proposals which meet the criteria before a final decision is made next autumn.

The new specialised service will launch early in 2017.

Once the new service has launched, GPs will continue to refer patients with suspected urological cancer to their local hospital for investigation, diagnosis and treatment.

Only about 150 of those patients each year will be referred to the new centre for specialised surgery, with the rest of their care taking place at their local hospital.