Our hospital provides vital services to Banbury's growing population

We're about to lose those services.

What are YOU going to do about it?

Services that are essential to a district the size of Banbury are about to be transferred to Oxford because the Oxfordshire NHS has to make cuts of a staggering £33m.

What's under threat?

The full proposals are yet to be published, but our understanding is;

- Our 24 hour childrens' ward will be downgraded to a day centre
Any child needing 24 hour care will have to stay in Oxford, almost 30 miles from their parents. This will cause great distress to sick children, and great disruption to families

- Our current obstetric maternity service will be downgraded to a midwife-led unit
All first-time mothers, mothers with even mildly troublesome pregnancies, and those whose babies will require special care, will have to go to Oxford to give birth. Any mother who finds herself in difficulty during labour will have to be ambulanced to Oxford, at a time when delays cost lives - assuming of course, that there is an ambulance available at that time......

- The Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) will be closed
Very early babies, and babies suffering from the most critical conditions, will be cared for in Oxford. The heartache suffered by all parents of SCBU babies, combined with frequent long and stressful journeys to Oxford, will cause intolerable strain to these vulnerable new parents

- No emergency surgery will be undertaken on weekday evenings, or any time at the weekend
Any patient needing emergency surgery at weekends or in the evening will be transferred to Oxford. This will lead to inevitable delays in treatment, which could cost lives

- Accident and Emergency
Accident and Emergency will not have access to a 24 hour paediatric consultant; so many seriously ill children could face a delay of up to 5 hours being transferred to Oxford for treatment.

- Microbiology will be transferred to Oxford
Literally; microbiology samples will have to be transferred to Oxford - in some cases by taxi. This will undoubtedly delay diagnosis. But the loss of microbiology is even more significant than that. Having an on-site microbiology unit is part of the minimum criteria for operating an A&E department. So if microbiology goes, we might lose A&E as well - all of it. How safe does that make you feel?

- The gynaecology ward will close
Emergency gynaecological surgery often results from very traumatic events, for example in early pregnancy. However only minor, planned day cases will be seen in Banbury. All other patients, including women requiring emergency surgery, will be transferred to Oxford.

- Services for the elderly could be centralised on the Horton site
While our children, mothers and patients needing out-of-hours emergency surgery are being ambulanced against their will to Oxford, Oxfordshire's elderly people will be being transported in the other direction.

- Wide ranging job and salary cuts
These have already started, with 17 housekeepers losing their jobs and staff at various levels facing mandatory pay cuts. Surely a decrease in cleanliness and morale is inevitable? Will this be used to justify future cuts?

- All the above will inevitably lead to less training opportunities
Junior doctors must be exposed to a variety of procedures and conditions to fulfil the terms of their training contracts. It seems likely that the significant reduction in training opportunities will have an impact on the number of junior doctors working at the Horton. This will inevitably lead to further reductions in services.

The projected savings from all these cuts are pitifully small in NHS terms. Incredibly, the savings will be further reduced because the cost of additional ambulance transport has not been taken into consideration.

The projected annual savings from closing the 24 hour children's ward are just £230,000 per year. The centralisation of maternity services at the JR are expected to COST Oxfordshire £164,000 per year.

Our hospital is being downgraded and our lives put at risk because Oxfordshire is chronically under-funded compared to the national average. So:
What are we doing about it?
What can you do to help prevent it?

*This article has been reproduced from the KeeptheHortonGeneral campaign website.