WANTAGE MP Ed Vaizey has said he is ‘very unhappy’ with the secrecy surrounding an overhaul of health services in Oxfordshire.

Writing in his exclusive column for this company, Mr Vaizey said there was ‘very little information being given to the public’, and complained that even he, as MP, was being excluded from decisions.

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group published the draft Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Sustainability and Transformation Plan just before Christmas.

The draft STP sets out how the health service will close a predicted budget deficit of £479m by 2020.

The plan covers 1.8m people and services including maternity, children’s services, learning disability, mental health, autism, specialist advice and urgent and primary care.

It could see reductions in the number of qualified nurses and ‘new roles’ given to Oxfordshire’s community hospitals.

The plan could also lead to cuts to the number of hospital beds across the county.

Health service campaigners have repeatedly criticised the OCCG for its secrecy around the plans, discussing much of the strategy behind closed doors.

Mr Vaizey said: “The situation has become very urgent, and I will be meeting local NHS chiefs shortly to try and get from them a clear timeline for the publication of the full and final version of the BOB STP so that we can all have a say in how our health services are developed over the next few years.”

Mr Vaizey also said he would be seeking a meeting with health ministers to find out why a bid by Wantage Health Centre for expansion funding was turned down in the autumn.