Banbury MP calls for regional MPs' support for the Horton - for their own residents' sake
Banbury MP Sean Woodcock has called on other Banburyshire MPs to support calls for full Horton services - in the interests of their own constituents.
Mr Woodcock wrote ahead of the first major discussion for years about services at the Horton General Hospital. It takes place at this Thursday’s Oxfordshire Joint Health and Scrutiny Committee meeting (JHOSC).
He has appealed to his Parliamentary colleagues to consider the population increase and the pressure rising numbers are having on the main Oxford hospitals.
Banbury area campaign group Keep the Horton General (KTHG) has made a lengthy submission to the meeting, setting out the need to return acute services – including full maternity - to service a burgeoning number of patients.
A KTHG delegation and Mr Woodcock’s team will attend the meeting at County Hall, Oxford.
In his letter to Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire MPs on the long-term future and strategic role of the Horton, Mr Woodcock said the Horton’s contribution to the healthcare ecosystem is ‘vital’.
“While the Horton is situated in my constituency, its serves as an essential pressure valve for the entire county’s acute care network, particularly the John Radcliffe and Churchill hospitals in Oxford.
"As many of our constituents experience first-hand, system-wide pressures across our health services – from emergency department waiting times to bed availability – demonstrate that Oxford cannot, and should not, bear the burden of acute and elective demand alone. "A well-resourced, fully utilised Horton directly benefits patients across Oxfordshire by providing care closer to home and preventing unnecessary centralisation at the JR site, which is already operating at or near capacity and faces persistent traffic and accessibility bottlenecks,” he said.
“Furthermore, our county is experiencing significant housing and population growth. Banbury and its surrounding communities have expanded rapidly over the past two decades, with substantial further growth projected across Oxfordshire in the years ahead.
"Delivering local public infrastructure that keeps pace with housing is a common priority for all of us. Ensuring the Horton has a clear, expanded clinical mandate is essential if our regional NHS services are to meet future demand sustainably. “Many in our community, spearheaded by the long-standing Keep the Horton General campaign, have consistently made the case for protecting acute capacity, maintaining robust clinical infrastructure and reversing historic downgrades – notably the loss of consultant-led maternity services in 2016.”
Mr Woodcock told MPs an ‘ambitious, joined-up vision’ was required from Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust that treats the Horton ‘not as a satellite after-thought, but as an indispensable pillar of regional healthcare delivery’.
He called on MPs to join him in talks with OUH leaders and the Thames Valley Integrated Care Board (ICB) to call for:
- A site-specific Masterplan and Clinical Blueprint to deliver an unambiguous, funded commitment for the Horton’s clinical baseline and future service mix
- Greater emphasis on shifting appropriate elective, diagnostic and acute activity away from the overburdened John Radcliffe to Banbury, rather than continuing piecemeal centralisation
- Ensuring the ICB and NHS England factor Cherwell's and West Oxfordshire's rapid housing development into hospital infrastructure and workforce planning, rather than relying on historical baseline activity.
Mr Woodcock urged the MPs to work together constructively across party lines to benefit constuents of all areas to ensure resilience of the region’s health infrastructure.