HEALTH managers in Oxfordshire have been accused of "hiding" a report that suggests ways of preserving paediatric services at the Horton Hospital, Banbury.

The report was unearthed by George Parish under the Freedom of Information Act but the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which controls the Horton, said the document was for internal use only.

The report was part of last year's strategic review of health services across Oxfordshire.

Its subtitle was Horton Hospital Work Stream and its aim was to "identify staffing options for children's services, preserving paediatric and neonatal inpatient services".

The report came up with options for retaining full paediatric services at the Horton, at a lower cost than the existing service, and would appear to contradict claims made on Monday, at a special meeting of Cherwell District Council's environmental select committee, that new proposals for the Horton would be safer than the existing service.

Representatives of the ORH Trust attended the meeting to answer questions on proposed cutbacks at the Horton, including a reduction in children's and maternity services, the closure of the special care baby unit, and the end of obstetrics and gynaecology treatment.

Part of the controversial report says: "The task force final report in November 2004 proposes that the Horton's current inpatient facility is replaced by an ambulatory service. A number of concerns have been raised as to the merits of such a service.

"These primarily involve safety, capacity, transport (of patients and relatives), staffing, and the impact on the Horton as a whole."

Mr Parish is chairman of the Save the Horton action group and was a member of a working party that reviewed health services in Oxfordshire.

He said on Monday that the working party was never given the option of retaining a 24/7 paediatric service at the Horton.

He said: "We only discussed closures and cutbacks."

Mr Parish said: "I was tipped off that this report existed and managed to obtain it using the Freedom of Information Act.

"It is the one document that proposes ways of keeping paediatric and neo-natal services at the Horton, so why was it not made public, and why was the working party not allowed to consider it? It would have given us a way forward."

Former Horton consultant Dr Peter Fisher, a member of the Save the Horton group, said: "The document sets out ways of saving paediatrics at the Horton and I do not know why its proposals have been declared non-functional for Banbury."

Trust manager Richard Jones said: "You are looking for a conspiracy that is not there. Two consultants were asked to prepare this document, and its findings were incorporated in the final report on the Horton. It was one of lots of working papers."

A spokesman for the ORH Trust said: "We have not been hiding anything. This report was only intended as an internal document put together about services.

"Mr Parish asked for the report and we gave it to him."