A new community hospital in one location was the demand from Bicester residents on Monday last week at the town’s first community forum.

Hundreds of residents from the town and the surrounding area descended on the Littlebury Hotel to tell health chiefs what type of facilities they wanted in the first of a series of community forums designed to shape the future of health services in the town.

Bicester MP Tony Baldry chaired the meeting and representatives from the Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust gave an update on the new community hospital which is currently out to tender.

Options for the new hospital being considered are the provision of health facilities and hospital beds in two different locations, or building a new community hospital on one site as part of the town’s south west option.

A shortlist of bidders is currently being drawn up and they will be asked to provide an outline plan in March next year with final tenders to be submitted by September. The final bids will be put before the PCT’s board in October.
Residents who attended the meeting made it clear to health bosses they wanted all the facilities on one site and wanted to have a say on what was to be provided.

Tony Burrage, hospital project manager at the PCT, said the board would choose the project from the best bidder, but he was not sure which option it was likely to be.

He said: “We don’t know if the beds could be on a totally different site. We are waiting for the bidders to come back to us with a solution. We want someone to come to us and say how they would provide bedded care for Bicester. The people who demonstrate how they can do it best will get the contract.”

One resident at the meeting said if the beds were not on the same site as the services it could lead people in the beds being forgotten about.

Residents also criticised the PCT’s rejection of a bid by Cherwell District Council to build a hospital and lease it to the trust for a peppercorn rent and also called for a maternity unit to be built, which was rejected by the trust.
Several people at the forum have put their names forward to join a project group being set up by the PCT, which will make a recommendation to the PCT board on the best option for health services in Bicester.