HEALTH camapigners demanded immediate action yesterday after Oxfordshire NHS Primary Care Trust admitted it had failed to cope with the impacty of the closure of Oxford Community Hospital.

The 24-bed hospital, at the Churchill Hospital complex in Headington, closed last May after a series of outbreaks of the superbug clostridium difficile.

Initially, the PCT said the “medium to long-term plan was to replace the hospital with a brand new facility somewhere in the city”.

But it called off the search, which sparked outrage among pensioners’ groups, nurses, councillors and unions. Instead, it hired 10 beds at a care home in Headington and sent some patients to other hospitals in the county.

However, in a report to the Oxfordshire joint health overview and scrutiny committee yesterday, Jonathan Coombes, the PCT’s manager for community hospitals said: “It’s clear the arrangements for alternative provision in the city are not meeting the present demand for bed-based rehabilitation.”

The PCT now wants to take over a ward with room for 20 beds at the Fulbrook Centre, also at the Churchill Hospitall, to meet the demand for beds for patients from the city.

Committee members said it should have taken action sooner.

County councillor Liz Brighouse said she knew women in their 90s who had been transferred to Abingdon and Witney for rehabilitative care because there were no beds in Oxford.

She said: “It’s not acceptable or fair on elderly people. The city needs its own community hospital.”

Committee chairman Dr Peter Skolar urged the PCT to compile a full report on its immediate and long-term plans for replacing services lost when the community hospital closed.