Oxfordshire CCG savings plan delayed

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has delayed its plans to tackle a £200 million funding gap by the end of the decade.

The plans, which involve closing some A&E, GP and maternity services, were due to come into effect in January 2017 but will now be pushed back until May.

Instead, the CCG is proposing to split the measures into two phases. While Phase one of the consultation will still begin in January, looking at services such as A&E and GPs across Oxfordshire,

Phase two, which focuses on community hospitals, will begin in May.

However, Ed Vaizey, the Tory MP for Wantage and Didcot, highlighted that the delay means the inpatients department at Wantage Community Hospital will have been shut for almost a year before the consultation has started.

He added: "This seems like closure by stealth. The longer the service is closed down, the less likely it is to be opened again."

Diane Hedges, chief operating officer at Oxfordshire CCG, said the proposals centred around ‘changing the way some services work, including critical care, stroke services and maternity services in the north of the county’.

She added: "It has been decided that more work is necessary to develop the options and ensure we have more engagement of clinicians and other stakeholders in the proposals for the future of community hospitals, emergency care services and children's services.

"For this reason, a delay is necessary for this consultation."