Bid for funding to revamp Banbury's Horton General Hospital rejected

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust wants to transform Horton General due to its "age and condition"

A bid for up to £370m to redevelop a hospital has been rejected.

Oxford University Hospitals Trust applied for the money to replace Horton General Hospital in Banbury "in its entirety".

The trust said it was disappointed its application to the government's New Hospital Programme was unsuccessful.

The Department for Health said there would be further future investment to upgrade NHS facilities, with detail agreed "periodically".

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust wants to transform the hospital due to its "age and condition".

The government's New Hospital Programme has committed to building new and redeveloping existing sites across the country

The bid was submitted in September 2021 and outlined three phases of development, with plans for the existing 30,700sqm hospital to be replaced with a 58,000sqm new build.

Its preferred option included increasing the emergency department's capacity from 16 to 50, new maternity facilities and improvements to its outpatient department.

Keith Strangwood, chair of the Keep the Horton General group, said he was "flabbergasted" as the money was so important.

He said that as Banbury was "growing and growing… something's got to be done".

The trust said it was disappointed "given the benefits that this proposed investment would have brought" for patients and staff.

It added it would "continue to invest in new developments to improve further the quality of care" it provides.

Banbury MP Victoria Prentis is preparing to meet trust executives following the decision

The MP for Banbury, Conservative Victoria Prentis, said she wanted the trust to explore all available funding options.

She said she has meetings with trust and care executives in the coming weeks and that the Horton would now be "front and centre in those discussions".

The leader of the Labour Party group at Cherwell District Council, Sean Woodcock, said: "The Conservatives have overpromised, under-delivered, and they've been found out.

"Meanwhile patients are being treated in outdated, crumbling hospitals."

The Department of Health and Social Care said it recognised the need for "continuous investment" and that the New Hospital Programme would "become part of a rolling programme of investment" and that would mean "further future investment to upgrade NHS facilities… with details agreed periodically".