We have heard before Government pronouncements about how much they value community hospitals. They have not made much difference to the policies of the primary care trusts in Oxfordshire in the past and we have little confidence that they will make any difference now.
Offering £750m to invest in community hospitals over the next five years is one thing, providing the cash and commitment to keep these cherished hospitals open and running where people want them is quite another.
We fully expect Oxfordshire's new single PCT to bid for cash from this fund. Campaigners should be under no illusion that this will be on the basis of anything other than a reorganisation similar to the one that has already been outlined by the health authorities.
The irony, of course, is that this money could help pay for the very thing that no one in Oxfordshire's market towns wants a rationalisation that will get rid of community hospitals and create a new generation of general hospitals that serve a region rather than a community.
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