THE future of the Horton Hospital is in doubt again after it emerged there is a new threat to its maternity service.

Under proposals by the Oxford Deanery, which oversees postgraduate medical training across the Thames Valley, it plans to withdraw from the hospital five middle-grade doctor posts out of six in August 2012.

The move would leave the unit without specialist doctors to carry out more complicated births, including caesarean deliveries.

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust confirmed it was committed to retaining maternity services at the Horton.

But it will be back to the drawing board for the trust to come up with a plan to keep the service.

Among the options that could be open to the trust include a midwife-run unit, or consultant-delivered centre, which would cost an extra £1.5m a year.

The trust had just confirmed paediatric services at the Oxford Road hospital were secure, with the majority of consultant posts filled.

For more than two years, the Better Healthcare Programme, set up to retain and develop services at the Horton, had worked to keep threatened services, including maternity, emergency and children’s services.

Earlier this year, health bosses agreed to plough an extra £2.4m into consultant-led children’s services after fears they could be axed.

Hospital campaigner George Parish is convinced the town will get a full maternity service, but warned that protestors would again take to the streets if there was a new threat to the wing. He said: “The news came as a shock. Everyone has been working so hard to secure the Horton and suddenly we are hit by this.

“We are committed to look for another way around this.

“I’m still convinced Sir Jonathan Michael (the chief executive of ORH) will make sure we get the services we need.

“If the service is under threat it will mean the campaign group comes into action.

“We must have this service for the children and mums-to-be.”

Paul Brennan, director of clinical services for the ORH, said: “There are currently six training posts at the Horton.

“The Oxford Deanery’s training committee are proposing to the Deanery that the five obstetric posts are not sustainable because of the relatively small numbers of births at the Horton, but that a gynaecology middle-grade training post should stay.

“The Deanery will not be withdrawing the training posts for 18 months if the recommendation from the training committee is endorsed.

“The current obstetric rota is robust and this provides the opportunity for the ORH to work with key local stakeholders, including local GPs, the PCT, and the Community Partnership Forum, to identify possible options to meet the requirements of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel.

“Maternity services remain very much a part of our vision for The Horton.”