Petition bid to reopen hospital

The community hospital is based in the grounds of the Churchill Hospital

Health workers and staff have started a petition to reopen Oxford Community Hospital, following its closure in May.

They are urging local people and political leaders to follow the example of campaigners who saved the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

Mark Ladbrooke, from health union Unison, said community hospitals give people support close to home.

The hospital, which is based in the grounds of the Churchill Hospital, closed after an outbreak of C-diff.

The petition comes after a report from the Commission for Social Care Inspection suggested elderly patients in Oxfordshire were more than twice as likely to be stuck in an inappropriate acute hospital bed, compared with the national average in England.

'Important function'

The county was found to be eight worst for this in the country.

The 28-bed NHS community hospital closed to new admissions in the summer after an outbreak of the virulent bug Clostridium Difficile (C-diff).

The important thing about them is they give people support close to their homes Mark Ladbrooke Unison

In May Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust said it had closed the hospital in Headington after an "infection control investigation and assessment about the state of the building had taken place".

Penny Astrop, director of provider services at the PCT, said the hospital would remain closed for several months.

But Mr Ladbrooke said it was now time to reconsider that decision.

"There are hospitals obviously in Witney, Bicester, Wantage, in Henley - all over the whole of the county and these community hospitals perform a really important function," he said.

"They allow people to come out from the acute hospital, the John Radcliffe, faster, get a level of support from the community hospitals before they are discharged to home.

"Sometimes they even prevent people having to go into the acute sector and the important thing about them is they give people support close to their homes."

Horton General Hospital was under threat of closure when Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust wanted to move its maternity and children's services to Oxford.

The trust argued the move was necessary to ensure clinical safety, but earlier this year the government accepted the recommendation of an independent panel that the plans should be refused.