MORE than 4,000 objections to cuts in services at Banbury's Horton Hospital were delivered to Oxfordshire health chiefs during the public consultation period which ended on Friday.

An eleventh-hour surge in responses to proposals by the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust to close the Horton's special care baby unit, reduce maternity and obstetrics services, and end 24-hour in-patient treatment for sick children, pushed the total of protests to a figure that amazed and delighted Save the Horton campaigners.

Most of the objections were submitted by residents, but others were submitted by family doctors, Horton nurses, Banbury Town Council, Cherwell District Council, and groups such as the Cherwell Vale Public and Patient Involvement Forum, Banbury Civic Society, Banbury Rotary Club, Banbury and District Chamber of Commerce, the Save the Horton committee, local MPs, and health workers union Unison.

The Trust's spokeswoman Helen Peggs had estimated the number of objections at 3,000, but Cllr George Parish, chairman of the Save the Horton group, thought the number would be higher after a last-minute surge of protests.

Mr Parish visited the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on Friday to deliver a bundle of objections direct to the Trust's chief executive Trevor Campbell-Davis.

Mr Parish said: "I'm sure the trust is surprised at the strength and depth of feeling against their proposals, particularly from doctors - and from the nurses who have risked the wrath of their employers by speaking out.

"We are absolutely delighted at the number, which exceeded our expectations.

"It shows that all our campaigning - public meetings and demonstrations including the rally in People's Park and the march through town - made residents aware of the threat to health services at the Horton."

In a statement, the trust said: "We are currently looking through the objections and responding to them, and we hope to publish as many as we can on our web site.

"A number of people seem to have been given inaccurate information, and believe that we are planning to close all maternity and paediatric services, or shut the emergency department.

"This is obviously not the case, and we are writing back to people to explain this."

Many of the objections concerned the way the public consultation process was conducted with GPs and the Public and Patient Involvement Forum both criticising the trust for its handling of the process.

But the future of the Horton could come down to a difference of medical opinion.

On one side are the nurses from the Horton's children's ward and family doctors from surgeries in north Oxfordshire and South Northamptonshire who say proposals put forward by the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust will mean less safe health treatment for children, pregnant mothers, and new-born babies.

On the other side are clinicians at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital who claim the proposed cutbacks will result in safer services.

Mr Parish said: "Family doctors and nurses know what they are talking about and the trust should listen to them. Risks should not be taken with children's, babies' and mothers' lives."

But the trust said: "Several professional groups have raised concerns about clinical safety.

"Our senior consultants remain convinced that the risks of trying to maintain in-patient paediatric services, and a consultant-led maternity unit, are too high because of problems we will face in the future of finding enough doctors to run them overnight.

"They believe the responsible option is to put in place systems which can ensure the safe transfer of mothers and children, in an emergency, to Oxford, as happens safely in other parts of the county.

"We will continue to have meetings and discussions with these professional groups to explore these issues.

"We plan to publish a report summarising what we have received. The trust will consider this, and decide on the next steps on October 26. But it will be some time before a decision is made."