Time running out to comment on Banbury GP plan

Anyone interested in shaping how doctors' surgeries in Banbury and north Oxfordshire develop have until Sunday to make comments on the plans.

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group has been gathering people’s opinions on its strategy for primary care in the area since November.

The plans show the priorities from Banbury to Chipping Norton for the organisation responsible for the county’s health provisions.

Campaigners argue people have not been given enough time to respond to the proposals which they say are unrealistic.

But OCCG says the draft plans were presented at the workshops in both towns and have been made available online from December 4 to 17, as a last chance for people to respond.

Labour Health Matters chairman Sue Edgar urged people to make their voices heard.

“Access to pharmacists and nurses is offered instead of GP care rather than alongside it, so we are looking at a system that could actually be dangerous,” she said.

“We need costings, and more detail about the ‘hows’ rather than the ‘whys’.

“Where are the new doctors coming from? How will the changes be financed?

“The crisis in primary care at the moment is devastating, so reading some of these ideas whilst also knowing what current resources are like, one begins to wonder about the future for local GP services.

“The wishful solutions offered amount to a patchwork of cheap care, and we are being asked to rubber stamp them without actually knowing what actual services will be offered or exactly what they will look like.”

OCCG will take the views made at the workshops and online into account before publishing the final plans at the end of January.

To read the plans and make comments, click here.

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