Oxfordshire's Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the majority of Horton staff and campaigners said the distance for sick children or mothers experiencing difficulty in delivery did not guarantee safety and the IRP ex-pressed its own concern about transfer times.

But recommending an ensured future for A&E, with full paediatric support, it did not rule out a midwife-led maternity unit (MLU) altogether.

"No solutions can be risk free but... we are not convinced (the trust proposals) are necessarily the only way to ensure future safety, accessibility and sustainability. We have some concerns about the paediatric ambulatory service proposal," the panel said.

"A stand-alone midwife-led unit (MLU) at Horton could work satisfactorily, providing proper protocols and excellent transport arrangements were in place."

The Royal College of Midwives urged caution and demanded a period of 'sustainability and stability' in Banbury.

Regional officer Judy Slessar said: "It sounds like 'hands off' to us. However I'm not sure quite what that means as they said the Horton needs to change and develop. We need to sit with the trust and discuss what it means.

"We need a period of sustainability and stability. Banbury midwives have had this threat hanging over them for some time."

Keep the Horton General campaign leader George Parish said: "No amount of 'excellent transport arrangements' could suffice unless someone dug a tunnel between the Horton and the JR exclusively for ambulances.

"We all know transfer time to Oxford can never be guaranteed – and any of the times suggested so far are too long for patients in danger."
And, in its report, the IRP said it shared campaigners' concerns about the distance between Banbury and Oxford.

But chairman Peter Barrett also said: "The IRP believes MLUs can play a vital role in providing maternity services and this is why we have backed them in other parts of the country."

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust boss Trevor Campbell Davis said: "The PCT will fund the service of which the doctors are a part and it is then up to the trust to work out how to find the doctors to do that.
"Simply increasing funding does not in itself fix the shortage of doctors.

"One of the real issues here is how to make sure we have enough medical staff to sustain services into the future. That has never been a financial issue. That has been about available people willing and able to work in Banbury with the right level of training and that issue remains.

"We are still going to have to find a solution to that."