MP TONY Baldry has waded into the row over the opening of a new kidney dialysis centre – raising concerns that the plan could be shelved because of financial problems.
The Banbury MP has pledged to talk to both Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust’s interim chief executive and the boss of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals (ORH) NHS Trust over the plans for a unit at Banbury’s Horton Hospital.
The move comes after it emerged the PCT had changed the criteria over the number of patients needed to set up a dialysis centre at the hospital.
Last summer, mother-of-three Miranda Berry, 50, launched a campaign for a new unit after becoming concerned that the three-times-a-week trip to Oxford’s Churchill Hospital for dialysis was taking its toll on her husband Steven, 51.
She was told by the PCT that to make a satellite unit viable there needed to be 24 dialysis patients living in north Oxfordshire – and that the possibility of building a centre would be looked into next year. But later that figure was raised to between 28 and 40 patients, and the PCT now says a unit will not be set up before 2011.
It was also recently reported that the ORH trust, which runs both the Churchill and Horton hospitals, needed to make savings of £44m this year.
Mr Baldry said: “Frustratingly, what I think this indicates is that given the particular financial difficulties of the ORH, and the broader financial challenges of the NHS, it is going to be particularly challenging trying to get new services for the Horton Hospital.”
Mrs Berry, 50, of Kenilworth Way, Banbury, said: “There is no way we can wait another year.
“The PCT has let us down terribly.
“Steven has been on dialysis for 15 years – why make us wait another year?
“They are boasting in letters that they have opened units across the county. But why haven’t they sorted something out in Banbury?
“Aylesbury has a unit which is open three days a week, and they can’t have as many patients as we have.
“They are trying to downgrade the Horton. A dialysis unit would strengthen the hospital. There are enough patients for a satellite unit.”
Last night Philippa Muir, head of specialist commissioning at the PCT, stressed that a business plan was being developed for a satellite unit in Banbury, and, once completed, options for its location would be looked at.
She said: “The PCT supports this development as it is consistent with the delivery of care closer to home.
“The financial implications will be considered once these have been calculated in the business plan and options appraised.
“Locating this at the Horton would be one of the options to be explored, alongside other possibilities.”
smcgregor@oxfordmail.co.uk
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