Banbury MP Victoria Prentis has hit out at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for keeping her in the dark about Horton General Hospital losing out on £370 million of government funding.

Ms Prentis has criticised the University Foundation Trust for a “lack of communication” because of its failure to inform her on visits to the hospital that the request for £370 million to rebuild the hospital had been denied.

Former prime minister Boris Johnson promised in his 2019 election campaign of 40 new hospitals and in September 2021, Oxford University Hospitals Trust submitted a bid to secure funding to rebuild Horton General.

READ MORE: Banbury hospital misses out on £370m of 'vital' funding

However, only last week the government revealed it will not consider eight remaining bids for 40 new hospitals and the Horton bid was one of these.

Ms Prentis said she was “bitterly disappointed” with the Trust and she stated it would be “very difficult to work with the Trust when information is not shared openly”.

The MP added: “On May 25, the Department for Health and Social Care released an update on the new hospital programme, in which they prioritised five hospitals deemed unsafe because they were constructed using aerated concrete.

“It wasn’t clear to me then that the remaining bids – including the Horton’s – were unsuccessful as a result.

“It has since come to my attention that the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had received a letter that same day explaining that the Horton had not been selected to join the programme.”

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Ms Prentis said it remained clear that Horton was “in desperate need of investment”.

The Banbury MP revealed she has already arranged meetings with the chief executive of the Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust, Meghana Pandit, and the chief executive officer of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust Dr Nick Broughton in the coming weeks to “explore all available funding options”.

Ms Prentis said the community remained “immensely protective of our local General Hospital” and she said recent investment such as a new CT scanner facility had been welcomed.

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The Keep the Horton General Group (KTHG) has said it will continue to fight for improvements and has urged supporters to write to shadow health secretary Wes Streeting to ask if a Labour government would be prepared to finance urgent renovations.

Chairman of the group, Keith Strangewood 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."

An Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spokesman declined to comment.

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Ed specialises in writing political stories for the Oxford Mail and The Oxford Times. 

He joined in the team in February 2023, after completing a History undergraduate degree at the University of York and studying for his NCTJ diploma in London.

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