Julie Mabberley of Wantage and Grove Campaign Group asks: is it our NHS or not?

YOU will remember the major publicity earlier this year surrounding the 'temporary' closure of the in-patients department at Wantage Community Hospital.

This was closed by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust without any evidence that the legionella bacteria which had been in the water system would reappear.

Oxford Health has asked us to clarify that two expert opinions – one commissioned by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and one commissioned by Wantage Town Council - agree there is a Legionella risk.

At the time this was announced as a temporary closure which would be reviewed after the NHS consultation scheduled for October, leaving us to hope that our in-patient service would reopen early next year.

In the meantime Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust closed an in-patient ward and the consultant-led maternity service at Horton Hospital at the beginning of October.

Then last week in the Oxford Mail it was reported that the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group was delaying part of the 'Oxfordshire Transformation Programme' consultation. Only about half of the proposals, affecting hospital services in North Oxfordshire, will be consulted on in January.

The proposals for the future of community hospitals, emergency care services and children’s services which are part of the broader 'Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP)' being produced for NHS England are being delayed again. Any consultation will take place after May 2017. In the meantime more hospital services are being lost and the temporary closures, like Wantage, will last longer.

All of this is caused by the Health and Social Care Act 2012: this act provided the framework for the privatisation of the NHS. It removed the legal duty on the Secretary of State for Health to provide and secure a comprehensive national health service in England. This removed public accountability and requires the Clinical Commissioning Groups to buy health services from organisations such as Oxford Health.

The new 'Sustainability and Transformation Plans' being prepared for the NHS require them to find ways of saving £2.45 billion. This means they will close hospital beds and implement ‘new models’ of care relying on home carers (‘hospital at home’).

Reducing beds and closing community hospitals will enable them to sell off NHS land and property – the ‘family silver’ that we gave them when the NHS was formed.

Members of the Wantage Hospital League of Friends joined many other groups from around the country on November 4 in demonstration outside Parliament timed to coincide with the second reading of a bill to reinstate the duty of the Health Secretary to provide a secure and comprehensive NHS.

The Clinical Commissioning Group will be presenting their plans at the Oxfordshire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee on November 17 Oxford County Hall. There are plans for a number of groups around the county to demonstrate both outside and attend the meeting inside County Hall.

Our National Health Service is important and, like every other government service, the quality of the service is at risk.