CAMPAIGNERS and the local MP have reacted with incredulity after being told maternity service downgrades at the Horton General Hospital will drag on into next spring.

On Friday it was announced that the Horton will continue to run a midwife-led, rather than doctor-led, unit until at least March 2017 instead of January meaning complex pregnancies have to be dealt with elsewhere.

At a community partnership meeting for Cherwell that afternoon Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust assured those present, including Banbury MP Victoria Prentis and environment secretary Andrea Leadsom, that it was still working hard to recruit middle-grade obstetricians to re-open a full service, with a number already signed up.

But Keith Strangwood, chairman of the Keep the Horton General campaign, said: "It doesn't sound right. They've already got four (doctors) confirmed; they could go and get locums.

"We have had reports from people who have had their children at Horton and say the midwives are doing fantastic job, but we hoping and praying the service will come back."

The trust has said nine doctors are needed to safely run a consultant-led service at the Horton, although at the time of the downgrade it was running with six.

Mrs Prentis said: "Every day that the unit is not fully open is a worrying one. It's very difficult to question figures like that but the unit was operating with six.

"Whether that was good, bad or safe I don't know. This is part of the problem with transparency; what we need is to be talked to about it."

A proposal by Banbury campaigner Val Ingram to retain services by running elective caesareans for Oxfordshire women at the Horton was also dismissed by the trust.

Writing to Ms Ingram, OUH chairwoman Dame Fiona Caldicott said about 60 of the 141 procedures undergone between July and August 2016 could not safely have been carried out at the Horton because of complex foetal and maternal issues.

She added: "The proposal represents an 'MLU plus' at the HGH, which is a model tried elsewhere and found to be unsafe."

While the present situation continues at the Horton women expected to have a high-risk birth are being told to travel to the John Radcliffe Hospital to give birth.

OUH chief executive Dr Bruno Holthof said: "We are disappointed that we cannot return obstetric-led maternity services to the Horton in January as hoped and we will continue to advertise widely, offering an enhanced package to attract the candidates we need.

"Patient safety must come first, and of course we cannot run the obstetric-led service without the staff for it to operate safely."