PROPOSALS aimed at securing the future of Banbury’s Horton Hospital will cost the NHS an extra £2m a year, it has emerged.

The news comes months after the Better Healthcare Programme said consultant-led services were the only way paediatric and maternity services could be saved at the hospital.

In December last year the programme came under fire after it took its proposal to the NHS Oxfordshire primary care trust board without an idea of cost.

Since then more detailed work has taken place and the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust, which runs the hospitals, said it would cost an extra £2m to staff the hospital with consultants, rather than middle-grade doctors.

The total annual budget for the hospital is £45m.

The Better Healthcare Programme recommended consultant-led services, because of recruitment problems at the hospital, because it has no training accreditation.

Andrew Stevens, director of planning and information at the ORH trust, said: “As part of the proposals that we put to the clinical panel last week, we provided some indicative costs, which came to £2m.

“More work still needs to be done to fully understand the costs involved.”

The detailed proposals will go before the Better Healthcare Programme panel later this month.

If accepted, the plans will be presented to the board of NHS Oxfordshire, which commission primary care services in the county, in the summer.

Separately, at a meeting of the Save Our Horton campaign group last week, Banbury MP Tony Baldry said it was clear that to maintain the Horton’s services at least £2m was needed.

He said: “The sooner the community has a clear statement of commitment by both the PCT and the ORH to consultant-delivered paediatrics at The Horton, the sooner the community will be reassured of the outcome.

“No-one doubts the commitment of the PCT and the ORH to the process, but this is now a process which has been going on for some two years.

“The recommendations are clear and unambiguous and the time has now come for decisions to be taken.”

The Better Healthcare Programme, which was set up to try to secure services at The Horton, has spent the past 20 months trying to find a way to retain the children’s ward and maternity services.

Several years ago the Independent Reconfiguration Panel overturned a decision by the ORH trust board to downgrade services at the hospital.

The ORH was told to come up with a way of maintaining paediatric and maternity services.

banbury@oxfordmail.co.uk