ANGER is growing over the cost of Banbury's new privately-run orthopaedic centre.

The centre, which opened on August 1, is costing the NHS £1.33m a month, or almost £16m a year, and the figure has sparked outrage amongst campaigners fighting to save services at the Horton Hospital.

Oxfordshire's primary care trusts, including Cherwell Vale PCT, are contributing just under half of the amount - £575,000 a month.

The remainder of the money is coming from PCTs in Milton Keynes, Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire, which will also send patients to the unit.

Local campaigners claim cuts to services at the Horton, proposed by the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust, will save only £1.85m a year - the equivalent of six week's payment to private healthcare provider Capio UK which owns and runs the orthopaedic centre on the Horton Hospital site.

The £1.33m is guaranteed - and is not dependent on how many, or how few, patients are treated at the Capio building.

The unit opened on August 1 for day surgery and outpatient treatment, and began taking in-patients on Monday.

Heather Barnett, spokesman for Cherwell Vale PCT, said the initial cost of the unit to Cherwell was £4.6m for the eight months from August 1 to March 31 - the equivalent of £575,000 a month.

She said: "The PCT has a budget of £600m a year and that puts the £4.6m into context. The contract with Capio is for five years, and the cost of the first full year will be over £6m.

"Until recently Cherwell Vale PCT was block-buying operations at the John Radcliffe Hospital, so paying a set figure for treatments is not a new concept."

District and town councillor George Parish, chairman of the "Save the Horton" action group, said: "When the PCT was block-buying from the JR, the money stayed within the NHS.

"The Capio money goes outside the NHS and the more money that goes out, the more the NHS debt builds up.

"Figures from the ORH Trust show the cost of maintaining services at the Horton would be £1.85m a year, yet £4.6m is going to Capio in eight months."

Local councillor Kieron Mallon said: "Every six weeks, the money needed to keep children's and maternity services and the special care baby unit at the Horton is being spent on this Government scheme. Over the whole year, this sum represents half of Oxfordshire's NHS debt."

A Horton campaigner, who did not want to be named, said: "Even the Government's stated aims of competition and patient choice are not being met.

"There is no competition if the income is guaranteed, and patients are not getting a choice because orthopaedic treatment has been discontinued at the Horton."

  • Cherwell Vale PCT is part of the North Oxfordshire Primary Care Partnership, and from October 1 will be absorbed into the Oxfordshire PCT.

PCTs are responsible for the planning and purchasing of health services.