HOSPITAL campaigners are planning to rally their supporters amid fears of job cuts at the Horton.

George Parish said the Keep the Horton General group was planning to lobby Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals’ annual general meeting tomorrow in a bid to minimise the effect on the Banbury hospital of 370 job cuts at the trust.

He said campaigners would be asking searching questions and urged staff to get in touch with him with any concerns.

The move comes after the Banbury Cake’s sister paper the Oxford Times revealed the county’s main hospitals were making a £44m cost-saving drive.

A total of 370 jobs are set to go across the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals over the next year including nurses.

The ORH has not ruled out compulsory redundancies at the Horton.

Mr Parish, who headed a successful campaign to save the Horton when services were set to be downscaled, said: “We are calling the group together to see how we can help the staff.

“I have called an emergency meeting to discuss questions we think are appropriate.

“We want to know what these savings of £44m mean for the Horton.

“Because staff have been treating people so quickly it just seems diabolical.

“We want to speak on behalf of staff as I know it is difficult for them to go along.

“I would ask any staff who have any questions to contact me in confidence.”

Mr Parish said over the past year a lot of work had gone on behind the scenes to secure the Horton’s future.

ORH spokesman Helen Peggs said services at the Horton were guaranteed while a countywide health needs assessment was carried out.

That is due to be completed in 2010 and could see health provision across the county restructured.

Ms Peggs said: “While we have a cost reduction programme to make sure we don’t overspend this year, we are not planning to close any patient services at the Horton and we hope to avoid making compulsory redundancies.

“We have already guaranteed to maintain patient services in their current form at the Horton General for the next year while the Better Healthcare Programme developed by the Primary Care Trust works with local people and organisations, and staff at the Horton, to develop future plans for the hospital.”

The trust is faced with reducing costs by three per cent to meet the Government’s savings demands.

It has also been hit by £5m increase in the cost of insurance for clinical negligence, and paying back the private finance initiative loan for the cancer hospital and new children’s hospital costs tens of millions.

In a separate move the general has been put back into the Horton Hospital’s signs — the word has been missing for the past year.

l The trust’s agm is being held in Banbury Town Hall today, at 3.30pm.

To contact Mr Parish email ga.parish@btinternet.com