Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust
Rt. Hon. Alan Johnson, MP
Secretary of State
Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS 26 November 2007
Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust
I refer to the attached article of this week’s “Oxford Times”.
It would appear that the Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust (ORH) is in financial difficulties, having recorded deficits at the end of both August and September, notwithstanding a rolling surplus throughout this financial year.
This is obviously a matter of some concern to my constituents and the constituents of neighbouring Members of Parliament who rely upon the Horton General Hospital and the JR for their hospital services.
It would appear that the ORH is suggesting that there has been a reduction income from the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust. Obviously this is a matter that I intend to take up with the Chief Executive of the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust because it seems strange that there should be a dispute between the PCT and the largest hospital Trust in its area about levels of funding during the course of the financial year.
You will see that the ORH intends to deal with their financial difficulties by seeking to trade themselves out of the deficit by taking on more private patients.
I have no intellectual objections against private patients. I do, however, have some concerns as to what are the ground rules of equipment that has been purchased by and intended for NHS patients being made solely available for the us of private patients and clearly it is the ORH’s intention that most of these private patients should be foreign nationals from overseas who have come to Britain specifically for the purpose of accessing private medicine at the JR.
You will see in the article the ORH spokesman, Helen Peggs, claiming that any increase in private work would not impinge on NHS care.
I would dispute this.
The Obstetrics Department at the JR recently helped a Russian mother give birth to quins. This lady had flown to Britain specifically to be treated privately at the JR. Because it was anticipated that her babies would be born prematurely, all available resuscitaires in the Trust were diverted to this private patient’s needs, including a number of resuscitaires that are normally kept in the Obstetric Department in the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.
Clearly if five resuscitaires were being used for a private patient, they were not available to be used either in Oxford, or Banbury, for NHS patients. Equipment that had been purchased by the NHS and provided for NHS patients was being used for a period of time wholly and exclusively by a foreign national private patient at the JR, for the proposes of generating income for the JR.
As you will know, the ORH Trust is proposing that maternity services at the Horton General Hospital are seriously downgraded, with the removal of a consultant-led maternity service and the creation of what would appear to be the largest Midwife-Led Maternity Unit in the country – some considerable distance away in Oxford.
On the radio the other day, you observed that you would be surprised if mothers had to travel over 20 miles to give birth. I can assure you it is considerably further from the Horton Hospital in Banbury to the JR in Oxford.
So one can understand that it is going to be very difficult for the Government to explain to my constituents that NHS Obstetric Services in Banbury are going to be substantially downgraded at the same time that the ORH Trust is proposing to expand facilities for private patients in Oxford using equipment and facilities purchased by and for the NHS.
It also calls into doubt the objectivity and impartiality of those consultants at the JR who are supporting the downgrading of maternity facilities at the Horton. It is perhaps understandable that they are not willing to cooperate with a rotation for junior doctors that includes the Horton if they are increasingly going to be looking to junior doctors to help them look after private patients at the JR.
I would welcome your comments.
Tony Baldry
