PLANS for a major new hospital for Bicester have again been delayed – and there are fears it may now never go ahead.

The scheme has been put back three months because of changes to financing rules and because it now needs to be signed off by ministers.

This has raised fears that the Department of Health will pull the plug on the scheme – for which planning started in 1997 – because of public sector cuts.

Banbury MP Tony Baldry has pledged to call for a debate in Parliament about the future of the scheme, which would replace Bicester Community Hospital.

Dr Michael Curry, a retired Bicester GP who is chairman of the Community Hospital Engagement Forum, which represents patients for project negotiations, hit out.

He said: “After 14 years of planning a new hospital we are nearly nowhere and the people of Bicester have a right to be very disappointed.

“We hope this latest delay is not the end of the road, and hope that the Department of Health is not planning to pull the plug on the whole scheme, or block it for bogus financial reasons.”

He said he feared ministers would have to choose between Bicester and another hospital scheme for Henley.

In April, plans to replace the existing hospital moved a step forward after NHS Oxfordshire, the primary care trust (PCT), agreed to take proposals to the next stage.

It was due to get further approval from NHS South Central, the strategic health authority, this month but this has now been put off.

Mr Baldry is seeking an adjournment debate in the Commons to “focus the minds of ministers”.

In a letter to NHS Oxfordshire chief executive Sonia Mills, Mr Baldry said he was considering changing his will to donate his body for medical research at Oxford University.

He said: “I would like to feel there is a fighting chance of the new Bicester Community Hospital being built before the Oxford University medical students start to get their hands on my liver!”

Mrs Mills said the delay was because of the need for ministers to sign off plan and because of changes to national finance rules.

Graham Groves, spokesman for NHS South Central, said: “We are assured that NHS Oxfordshire is committed to the redevelopment of Bicester Community Hospital.

“A great deal of work has been undertaken by the PCT and local people to ensure that the plan to provide health facilities for the people of Bicester and surrounding areas is a success.”