It is reported that NHS bosses are refusing to allow cancer patients to receive treatment with potentially life-saving technology – endorsed by senior doctors – at a hospital which has just spent £3m on it.

Dr Smith told the Daily Mail: "I feel so let down. I've given my all to the NHS and I could give it another 20 years, doing the work I love. I just need this treatment to give me a fighting chance."

The Mount Vernon cancer hospital in London is the first NHS hospital to purchase a CyberKnife machine, which facilitates radiotherapy with pinpoint accuracy.

It is better for tumor treatment compared to conventional radiotherapy, less damaging than surgery and can cure some patients whose conditions would otherwise be untreatable, posted leading oncologists.

However, the east of England strategic health authority's specialized commissioning group (SCG) is reported to have banned NHS patients to have an access to CyberKnife at the Mount Vernon as it is says that it is not yet convinced the robotic radio-surgery system works.

The only two CyberKnifes currently in use in the UK are at private hospitals in Harley Street, London, where patients pay above £20,000 for a single treatment course.