Horton Hospital directors agree to save services

Plans to spend £2.4m on saving key services at Oxfordshire's Horton Hospital have been approved by its directors.

The money will be spent on recruiting extra consultants.

In May the board of NHS Oxfordshire agreed funding of £1.5m a year to help save children's and maternity services at the Banbury site.

The hospital's directors have now agreed to provide a further £900,000 annually to maintain the services.

The funding will ensure children's and maternity services are offered 24 hours a day.

Saving the services has been the subject of a long-running campaign.

Sir Jonathan Michael, chief executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "I'm delighted that we today were able to agree to implement the plans that had been confirmed by Oxfordshire PCT, which will commit us to maintaining 24-hour services for paediatrics and obstetrics at the Horton."

"We would like to strengthen the services that we provide for the people of Banbury and North Oxfordshire out of the Horton."

Campaigner George Parish said: "We've all worked together very hard and we've always supported the way forward for the Horton.

"It's been a very long journey, about six times in Parliament. We've not gone through all this not to see the Horton looked after."