AN Oxfordshire Labour group has blasted the decision made by the county's health chief's this week to stop providing vasectomies on the NHS.

Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (OCCG) made the cost cutting measure as it looks to tighten the purse strings on healthcare after it was revealed to have overspent by £2.4million in just the first two months of the year.

Other treatments and services may now also be reduced or limited in an effort to save more money, the CCG has admitted.

However, Banbury Labour Health Matters, a constituency-wide Labour working group on health issues, said the move was 'awful news' and would ultimately impact poorer couples and women, who may be faced with the burden of arranging other forms of contraception.

The group's chair, Sue Edgar, said: “Free contraception for both sexes used to be considered a right.

"Does the government, who is wholly responsible for this unnecessary funding crisis, not understand? Or do they simply not care?

"At the very least this will mean terrible choices for a lot of women and for a lot of couples and families." At worst it is a trip back to more brutal times, when the choices were between unsuitable methods of birth control or unwanted pregnancy. The spectre of backstreet abortion is back to haunt us.”

OCCG wrote to GPs last week to advise them of the situation and is urging couples to use other forms of contraception.

There are currently more than 450 men on the vasectomy waiting list with the CCG committing to clearing the backlog.

The operations however will be suspended for new patients for the remainder of 2018/19.

A CCG spokesman said action had to be taken to avoid a 'significant overspend' at the end of the year.