Horton campaign group will assist survey into maternity experiences

The group responded positively to a suggestion made by town, district and county councillor Cllr Keiron Mallon about OCCG’s proposed survey to guage public opinion.

Mr Mallon said: “When gathering evidence before making decisions could you use the experience of mothers and their testimony that that come directly through the Keep the Horton General group?

“There is still a feeling of mistrust in this part of the world and I wonder whether some of those mothers and their families would be willing to fully engage with anything to do with Oxford.

“It may help you with some of the historic mistrust you may face as they may be willing to give their evidence through that third party and a lot of that evidence is corroborated, it’s not anecdotal. There are names and dates. That way you may get some real experiences that you may not otherwise get because of this feeling of mistrust.”

KTHG member, former Horton consultant physician Dr Peter Fisher accepted happily on behalf of the group.

He said: “We’d already sent each member of the Horton HOSC a collection of experiences women have reported to us since the closure of obstetrics. These reports continue to come in and we will look to collect more. We will be happy to supply these to OCCG with the consent of the women.”

Dr Fisher said KTHG’s submitted dossier dissects the case for and against downgrade in the light of the warnings the group made at the time and whether they were justified.

“Some recent cases are at best alarming and at worst dangerous,” he said.