KEEP THE HORTON GENERAL

Image of baby

Our hospital provides vital services to Banbury's growing population.

We're about to lose those services.

So what are we doing about it?

Behind the scenes……

Outwardly, the campaign went quiet for a few months while the decision makers retreated behind closed doors to review the proposals. Here’s what went on.

• After the consultation ended, the ORH Trust set up two working parties – one for paediatrics (children’s services) and one for obstetrics (maternity services).

• The working groups were asked to review obstetric and paediatric services at the Horton in detail, and make recommendations to the Trust.

• The Trust also set up a Stakeholder Panel, including (amongst others) representatives from the Keep the Horton General Campaign, Cherwell District Council, Banbury Town Council, and the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust.

• The stakeholder panel’s job is to comment on the working groups’ recommendations, and make their own suggestions. However, it is the ORH Trust who will make the final decision.

• The working groups reviewed the evidence and prepared their draft reports, which they presented to the stakeholder panel.

You can read them here:
Working group statement
Maternity and gynaecology working group report
Childrens working group report

• The stakeholder group debated the new proposals and crafted a comprensive response (read the stakeholders response here).

• The Trust reviewed the working groups’ recommendations and the stakeholders response, and decided to press on with the cuts.

• The Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee decided this was unacceptable and referred the proposals to the Secretary of State for Health.

• The Health Secretary referred the proposals to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel.

• The IRP are reviewing the proposals in detail, visiting Banbury and talking to stakeholders and the general public.

It is vital that you write to them and let them know how much we need the hospital.

Please see "previous events" for our other activities and achievements.

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The original proposals

Our formal response to the consultation

Read our response - click here

You will not be surprised to learn that we believe the proposals will have a significant detrimental effect on the services provided to the people of North Oxfordshire and surrounding areas. We reject the Trust’s proposals in their current form, but would welcome the chance to work with them openly and honestly to find a solution that provides a safe, sustainable service for the people of the Banbury area.

PUSH (People United Saving Hospitals)
We've joined forces with other groups across England to start campaigning on a bigger scale. PUSH aims to bring together local groups like ours, to co-ordinate the national effort.

Mayors and civic leaders conference
We're inviting all the mayors and civic leaders in Oxfordshire, South Warwickshire and South Northants to a conference in Banbury to discuss the cuts and put pressure on the Trust. When the leaders of half a million people speak out, can they fail to listen?

We're obtaining information - and using it
We're using the Freedom of Information of Act to obtain various reports that certain organisations would prefer we didn't see. We're using this information to challenge the proposed cuts on many fronts.

Links:

Home

Horton victory - everything about our successful campaign

What can I do?

What's under threat?

What we're doing about it

Did you know...?

Letters, quotes and reports

Previous events & press releases

Sample letters

Download leaflet

Contact us

External links

We're on committees that matter
Some of our members sit on the Oxfordshire Public & Patient Forum. The Oxfordshire Public & Patient Forum can question ORH Trust representatives on behalf of patients.
Another member was obliged to resign from our group to take up a place on the Oxfordshire County Council Health Scrutiny Committee. The Oxfordshire County Council Health Scrutiny Committee can summon and question ORH Trust representatives and can report to government health minister Patricia Hewitt.
Both committees provide us with a vital "voice" to reach the right ears.

We've written to over 100 parish councils, to local businesses, churches, mosques and organisations
....asking them to get involved in the campaign. We have received a huge pledge of support in response.

We've written to the national media
.....asking them to publicise the fact that unsafe cuts are being imposed on hospitals right across the country

Keep Our NHS Public Campaign
We also have strong links with the Keep Our NHS Public campaign, which spreads the message that the current problems in the NHS are the result of government meddling in NHS policy.

The Keep Our NHS Public campaign;

- opposes the cuts that are taking place all across the country
- opposes the market system, which sees all items of care costed and billed, massively increasing administrative costs;
- wants to bring attention to the frequent, costly NHS reorganisations that have seen millions wasted over the last decade, but which have returned us to more or less the same position we were in in the early 1990's;
- opposes the use of the private sector in health care (PFI), in which care is provided by independent profit-making treatment centres like the ineffective, expensive Capio Orthapaedic Centre in Banbury.

"Double the money going in, but less service coming out"

If you are interested in the national campaign, their website is www.keepournhspublic.com

Lobbying parliament

All the Oxfordshire MPs are lobbying parliament for fair funding for Oxfordshire. Oxfordshire receives the lowest funding per head of population in the country.
If our funding was increased by even half of the shortfall (compared to the national average) there would be no need for the cuts. Tony Baldry's petition has been submitted to parliament now, but you can still check out his website, www.save-our-services.com