A plan to build a haematology centre in Belfast for cancer patients has been put at risk after the Department of Health (DoH) withdrew funding, the chief executive of the Belfast Trust has said.

The move was described as "disgraceful" during Thursday's session of Stormont's health committee after trust officials said the department had now decided to take back £1.5m from the project. Belfast Health Trust had planned to move 80 staff out of an area of Belfast City Hospital to make way for the new unit, but having reviewed the proposal the DoH withdrew related funding.

The DoH said it will fund most of the additional cost and will work with the Trust to control growing costs of capital projects.

The project is now a year behind its planned opening date, which is currently put back to March 2031. Belfast Trust Chief Executive Jennifer Welsh said: "The relocation of approximately 80 staff remains a challenge.

"The Department of Health was not satisfied with the trust's options' appraisal and has challenged the robustness of the capital cost estimate, resulting in £1.5m of funding having been withdrawn from the decant allocation." The DoH said the costs of the project have risen from £8m to £19m.

"We have indicated to the Trust that it should fund one element of this project (around £1.05m) from its expected general capital allocation of £20m per year over the next 2 years," a department spokesperson said.

"I will be clear with members that this is a significant issue for us, which potentially poses a substantial risk to this project," Welsh added. She said the trust was exploring ways to fund the movement of the 80 staff out of the area within the city hospital and the issue was "being escalated to the permanent secretary" at the DoH.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) assembly member Diane Dodds said the public would be very concerned about the trust's report on the haematology unit.

"They are very worried about the conditions that haematology patients currently have within the city hospital and the lack of isolation for patients whose systems are very, very vulnerable," she told the committee. "This was seen as something of significant hope for cancer patients in Northern Ireland.

"This is something that needs addressed as quickly as possible without any delay, because delaying this is really putting very vulnerable people at risk." Alliance assembly member Nuala McAllister said the move by the department to remove the funding was "disgraceful".

"We are talking about patients who are undergoing some quite intense treatment, and with very specialised staff," she said.

"We are talking about very vulnerable patients - severely immuno-compromised... and the department who receives over half of the executive's budget has decided that £1.5m cannot move ahead for a new cancer unit for some of our most immuno-compromised cancer patients."