Banbury area GPs complain of patients being sent to Oxford for care
GPs say patients who should be treated in the Banbury area are being sent to Oxford for care against their best interests.
The issues family doctors have listed include infusions for Multiple Sclerosis and iron for anaemic pregnant women, chemotherapy because the Brodey Centre is at capacity and kidney dialysis – with some patients having to travel to Oxford three times a week without hospital transport.
The GPs say minor dermatology surgical procedures are no longer performed at the Horton. The biopsy room has not been updated for 25 years.
Some urology patients are being referred to the JR, Oxford for diagnosis and care. There are ‘missing or inadequate’ services such as rheumatology, geratology and pain clinics. And they say acute surgical reviews are reported as ‘missing’ with those that do exist having unnecessarily long waits.
They complain that facilities are outdated and believe Oxford consultants do not want to travel to Banbury, in spite of being on trust-wide contracts.
"Outpatient clinics are under-served. Even routine outpatient clinics are not being run as they should be,” said one GP. “A patient was told that if they did not agree to go to Oxford, they did not know when they would be seen, as Horton clinics are sporadic.”
A paper sent by Keep the Horton General (KTHG) to the Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee last week reported GPs’ concerns.
"We found neither GPs nor the Primary Care Network have been consulted on discussions about our hospital in Banbury,” said the campaign group.
“These are GPs who have thousands patients who are being sent to Oxford for chemo because the trust will not push the enlargement of the Brodey Cancer Centre, patients being sent to Oxford three times per week for dialysis because accommodation is not being provided at the Horton, skin patients being sent to Oxford because there is no appetite to upgrade dermatology clinics to allow minor procedures to be carried out as they used to be. The same goes for urology and all sorts of other disciplines.
“So much for the ‘Hospital for the 21st Century’ with an extra 90,000 outpatient appointments a year promised by the Oxford University Hospitals Trust (OUH) CEO Dr Bruno Holthof in 2017 when he downgraded maternity to a midwife-only unit - now delivering ten babies a month – while women suffer the prospect of birth trauma at an inaccessible, distant, overworked obstetric unit.”
KTHG said the Oxfordshire GP Leadership Group represents the whole county of individual General Practitioners.
"Yet there is not a single GP from the important area of Banburyshire on that group. The closest is Bicester which has long been directed to Oxford rather than to Banbury.
“The Banburyshire population that looks to the Horton is in the process of doubling from the time of the 2016 maternity downgrade to 2040. That is 405,000 people.
“The rest of Oxfordshire is growing at the same pace. The JR will have a catchment of 1,000,000+. It is not coping now - things are going to get progressively worse.The Horton has for far too long been the crumbling, distant cousin of the JR. It was a crucial safety valve for the JR and that benefit has been thrown away. Patients are on the receiving end.”