Ahead of today's meeting of the Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Conservative Council leaders Barry Wood and Kieron Mallon, of Cherwell District Council and Banbury Town Council respectively, have submitted the following open letter to the Committee:
Wednesday 1 February 2017
An open letter to the members of Oxfordshire County Council’s Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee.
Dear Councillors,
We write to you in advance of your meeting tomorrow, Thursday 2 February. While we appreciate, your agenda does not set aside time for consideration of the ongoing suspension of obstetric services at the Horton General Hospital, we would be grateful if you could consider this letter as part of your wider discussion on the Oxfordshire Transformation Programme.
As you will all know, the consultant-led maternity service at the Horton General Hospital has been suspended since the beginning of October 2016. At your September meeting, the Committee agreed not to refer the matter to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) on the basis that the action plan in place by the Trust meant that by the beginning of March, maternity services at the Horton would once again be consultant led.
Since then, however, it has become clear that there are no plans in the immediate future for the maternity unit to return to a full obstetric service. We believe it is imperative for this Committee to revisit the issue of the Horton's maternity service. A move to a permanent MLU in Banbury is a significant service change and one which must be considered by the IRP.
In 2008, the IRP concluded that transferring obstetric maternity and paediatric provision (including special care and emergency gynaecology services) from the Horton did not provide an accessible or improved service to the people of north Oxfordshire. Since that time, the geography of Oxfordshire has not changed but the population has increased, and travel and accessibility to the JR has significantly worsened. We fail to see how the current proposals offer an improved service to patients in the Horton catchment (including those patients from across the county border) or, and perhaps more crucially, a safe service.
Currently, the Trust has met public concern over transfer time from Banbury to Oxford by stationing one ambulance outside the maternity unit to deal with births which suddenly, in the late stages of labour, require consultant intervention. A proposed permanent downgrade does not offer these assurances. Even if it did, we know the transfer time during labour to be critical and fear for the safety of north Oxfordshire's mothers and babies in transit.
Following the downgrading of the maternity unit, several other acute services at the Horton may be at risk, including A&E, Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Anaesthetists. As you will all be aware, the first phase of the Oxfordshire Transformation Programme (OTP) is currently out for public consultation. We are very disappointed that the OCCG made the decision to split the consultation into two parts and are concerned about the effects this may have on services at the Horton. There is a direct link between all healthcare services and it is simply wrong that Oxfordshire residents are not being given the full picture. It is impossible to ask residents to express their views on what is being proposed in Phase 1 when we have no idea what impact our responses in the first part will have on the second part.
Both in Phase 1 of the consultation and at the consultation events, the Trust and the OCCG have expressed their commitment to invest in the Horton Hospital through the creation of a new diagnostics centre. This sounds promising. However, while we support Banbury patients being treated in Banbury, this should not be at the expense of vital acute service provision being centralised at the JR.
The Health & Overview Scrutiny Committee faces an unenviable task but one which is vitally important. We all want to act in the best interests of the people of Oxfordshire. We do not believe that the CCG or Trust are taking decisions lightly but we must ensure that the healthcare needs of patients across Oxfordshire are properly served, including for those residents who rely on the services at the Horton Hospital. It is clear there is a real lack of trust between the decision-makers at the CCG and Trust, and the public.
Please do take our concerns into consideration in your deliberations and communications with the OCCG and the Trust.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Barry Wood, Leader of Cherwell District Council
Councillor Kieron Mallon, Leader of Banbury Town Council
