THE future of Banbury's Horton Hospital is back in the melting pot after Oxfordshire health chiefs revealed they were reconsidering plans that would have decimated paediatric and maternity services at the site.

But a cautious Banbury MP Tony Baldry has called for clarification.

He wants to know if the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust intends coming up with new ideas or if it is simply looking for new ways to push through its original ideas.

After a meeting on Friday, the trust said it was looking again at proposals which would have closed the special care baby unit at the Horton, ended 24-hour in-patient children's care, and reduced maternity and obstetric services. Overnight emergency operations and trauma were also at risk, and the Horton's gynaecology unit was scheduled to move to Oxford.

The rethink has been forced on the trust by the number and quality of objections to its proposals during the public consultation period which ended on October 13.

Helen Peggs, spokesman for the trust, said: "We will be producing amended proposals at some time in the future. We have asked for an independent review, and we need to do more work on the difficulties at the Horton and consider ideas put forward in the consultation, particularly from GPs.

"We intend to bring in expert paediatricians to advise on what is safe and what is not safe, and what the risks are."

She went on: "It is not about making cuts, it is about finding a working solution that we can sustain in the future.

"We will be looking for an acceptable compromise - one that GPs and the primary care trust will be happy with.

"There are differences of opinion among our own consultants, and we do not want to forge ahead with something that has this level of clinical concern."

Mr Baldry is seeking further details of the independent agency involved, and he is asking for assurances that it is being employed to consider how full services can be retained at the Horton, not just how changes can be driven through.

He said: "The trust has suggested that the so far nameless agency would consider how to improve the proposals and reduce the clinical risks associated with them.

"This gives the overall impression that the trust is only looking for better ways to win clinical and other support for the changes it wishes to implement at the Horton."

In a letter to trust chief executive Trevor Campell Davis, Mr Baldry said: "I think clarification would help everyone to understand the process and what the trust is trying to achieve.

"If this is going to be a genuine examination of new ideas, then the best way forward would be for the independent agency to draw up a document that clearly sets out the new suggestions, so that there can be a proper and informed discussion of what the trust is now considering."

Mr Baldry has also writeen to Sir William Stubbs, chairman of the trust, asking him to confirm that no action would be taken at the Horton until a report by Sir Ian Carruthers had been published.

Sir Ian, who until recently was acting head of the NHS, has been appointed by secretary of state for health Patricia Hewitt MP to undertake a six month review of any plans to cut or downgrade NHS services and has been told to deliver a straightforward message to local NHS managers that without the backing of GPs and consultants there should be no cuts.

George Parish, chairman of the Save the Horton action group, said: "I am pleased that the proposals are being rethought but we will not be celebrating until we see the outcome of the rethink."

More than 4,000 objections to the trust's proposals were received during the public consultation.