Banbury's Horton hospital 're-build' vision bites the dust - would Labour revive it if it wins the seat in a General Election?

Keep the Horton General (KTHG) group said they will continue to fight for improvements to the Horton and told supporters to write to Shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, to ask whether a Labour government would find finance for urgent renovations.

The group has written to Mr Streeting to invite him to Banbury to see its growth for himself, and how badly the town needs adequate hospital facilities. A specialist election consultancy has predicted that Labour could win the Banbury constituency at the next General Election.

Last week confirmation was given that the Government will not consider eight remaining bids for ‘40 new hospitals’ promised as part of Boris Johnson’s election manifesto. The Horton’s bid was one of these. The Banbury Guardian reported in 2021 doubt that the commitments would be honoured as they were ‘unaffordable’.

KTHG chairman Keith Strangwood said: “If we’re not getting that £370 million, someone's got to do something else because we've all seen what's happening. Every road in and out of Banbury is having more and more houses.

"If the ‘vision’ doesn’t go ahead I don’t see how Banbury can cope, especially with the low morale of staff at the moment – fighting for wages which have dropped 35 per cent in real terms over the last ten years. They’ll all go to Australia if we’re not careful.”

Mr Strangwood said patients should lobby Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting. “This time next year we may have a different government and see if they do anything different.

“They haven’t got to do anything new – they just need to go ahead with the ‘Vision’ for the Horton we were shown at the Town Hall in 2016. Whoever’s in government needs to find the money. They can find billions for Ukraine and millions for asylum seekers but they can’t fund a kickstart of £360m for the Horton. It’s time for Government and successive governments to decide where their priorities are.”

Mr Strangwood said the KTHG will keep doing all it can to keep the Horton a good district general hospital and improve it. He said the group’s focus on the hospital was essential to stop further downgrades being introduced under cover of inadequate buildings.

KTHG press officer Charlotte Bird said: “This is a significant body blow for the population of Banburyshire. But Boris Johnson was not renowned for telling the truth. Look at the Brexit battle bus. All of this was quite probably fiction right from the get go. All it did was to raise people's hopes. The 40 hospitals were doomed to fail. The building of 40 new hospitals was built on a premise of quicksand.

"We were led to believe we were definitely in the running. It has been an excuse for the trust to not touch those crumbling buildings – because they thought they may be given the money for a new establishment. Now we’re left without a new hospital and a lot of crumbling buildings that have had no money invested in them for too long.

“It was always a smokescreen. It was former CEO Bruno Holthof, supported by the Clinical Commissioning Group CEO, Lou Patten, who said the Horton would be a ‘hospital for the 21st century’ – a multifunctional department that could have obstetrics returned if the population grew. It's about time people started telling the truth,” she said.

An Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) Trust spokesperson said: “We are naturally disappointed that our bid for national funding through the New Hospitals Programme (NHP) has not been successful, given the benefits that this proposed investment would have brought for the patients and communities that we serve, and for our staff at the Horton General.

“In partnership with our staff, our Governors and the local people of Banbury and North Oxfordshire, we will continue to invest in new developments to improve further the quality of care which we provide for patients at the Horton General – for example, we have recently installed a new CT scanner to increase capacity for diagnostics and to ensure that more patients can be treated locally rather than having to travel to another hospital.”

Cllr Sean Woodcock, Leader of the Labour group on Cherwell District Council said: “Labour will set out our plans for the NHS, including capital expenditure on hospitals, more definitively nearer to the general election expected next year.”

Of the loss of the hope of £370m for the Horton he said: "This raises serious questions for our MP Victoria Prentis. She has always let it be known that she will put the Horton first and will fight for it. But we've already lost consultant-led maternity care under her watch. And now here is the government that she is a senior member of rejecting an opportunity to invest in it.

“She is typical of the government that she serves. They promised us 40 new hospitals. The so-called 40 new hospitals are over-budget, behind schedule and may be too small. Many are not ‘new’, others are not ‘hospitals’ and there aren’t 40 of them. In fact, just one hospital is on track to be built by the next election.”

The OUH said: “OUH is committed to the future of the Horton General Hospital in providing comprehensive healthcare services to the people of Banbury and surrounding areas including our Emergency Department (A&E), Midwifery-led Unit (MLU), Brodey Centre for cancer care, and a wide range of surgery, day case procedures, diagnostics and outpatient clinics."

Mrs Prentis has been asked for a comment.