Oxfordshire CCG Board today decided to approve a new way forward for tackling some of the future challenges in Oxfordshire’s health and care system. This means that there will be a new approach to future developments for health services in each of the six localities in Oxfordshire and no changes will be proposed to A&E and paediatrics at the Horton General Hospital or to the provision of Midwife Led Units in Oxfordshire.

This new approach will mean working with communities in localities across the county to understand the local health needs, the local resources and facilities available and together to plan integrated health and care services for the future. Patients, the public, local clinicians, local representative, voluntary organisations and others will all be involved in this work. NHS organisations and social care will be working closely together and a plan for how this engagement will work will be shared soon. In taking this approach, local communities will be working with us as partners and the ultimate plans we create together will be ones that are owned by all.

Louise Patten, Chief Executive at OCCG said: "I am delighted that we have made this decision and that we can start to plan a new approach for engaging communities on the issues that affect them locally. Integrating health and social care at a local level with local people fully involved will bring benefits for patients as well as improvements for the system."

Dr Bruno Holthof, Chief Executive of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted that the CCG Board has today confirmed that it has no plans to change Emergency Department services at the Horton General.
 
“Our clinicians and our Trust Board have always been clear that there is a demonstrable need to maintain and enhance the provision of urgent care in North Oxfordshire by developing the Emergency Department at the Horton General, integrating services better, and continuing to work more effectively with primary care.
 
“Almost 40,000 patients a year are treated in the Emergency Department at the Horton and the level of demand increases every year. Downgrading the department to an Urgent Care Centre or shutting the department completely were never viable options.
 
“We look forward to continuing to work with colleagues from the CCG, Oxford Health, County Council, patient groups and local politicians to address the health needs of people living in North Oxfordshire and the rest of the county.”

Stuart Bell, Chief Executive of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We strongly support the focus on the development of locality based care. We have been working closely with GP federations across Oxfordshire to create the best means of supporting people in their own homes rather than their being admitted unnecessarily to an acute hospital.

“We know that this will work best where, rather than continuing the traditional model of having a set of interventions that are done to people, the provision of care is a true partnership between practitioners, patients and their family and carers. We also need to make sure that we have the right skills and capacity in our community services to support people in that joint endeavour. That is why this process of engagement with local communities over the next few months is so important.”

Kate Terroni, Director for Adult Services at Oxfordshire County Council, said: “We welcome the shift in focus to reviewing the future health and social care needs on a place basis in light of increasing pressure on our services. The county council is committed to engaging with people where they live about services that matter to them and will work closely with health partners to progress this collectively.”