The scheme has been put back three months because of changes to financing rules and because it now needs to be signed off by ministers.

This has raised fears that the Department of Health will pull the plug on the scheme – for which planning started in 1997 – because of public sector cuts.

Banbury MP Tony Baldry has pledged to call for a debate in Parliament about the future of the scheme, which would replace Bicester Community Hospital.

Dr Michael Curry, a retired Bicester GP who is chairman of the Community Hospital Engagement Forum, which represents patients for project negotiations, hit out.

He said: “After 14 years of planning a new hospital we are nearly nowhere and the people of Bicester have a right to be very disappointed.

“We hope this latest delay is not the end of the road, and hope that the Department of Health is not planning to pull the plug on the whole scheme, or block it for bogus financial reasons.”

He said he feared ministers would have to choose between Bicester and another hospital scheme for Henley.

In April, plans to replace the existing hospital moved a step forward after NHS Oxfordshire, the primary care trust (PCT), agreed to take proposals to the next stage.

It was due to get further approval from NHS South Central, the strategic health authority, this month but this has now been put off.

Mr Baldry is seeking an adjournment debate in the Commons to “focus the minds of ministers”.

In a letter to NHS Oxfordshire chief executive Sonia Mills, Mr Baldry said he was considering changing his will to donate his body for medical research at Oxford University.

He said: “I would like to feel there is a fighting chance of the new Bicester Community Hospital being built before the Oxford University medical students start to get their hands on my liver!”

Mrs Mills said the delay was because of the need for ministers to sign off plan and because of changes to national finance rules.

Graham Groves, spokesman for NHS South Central, said: “We are assured that NHS Oxfordshire is committed to the redevelopment of Bicester Community Hospital.

“A great deal of work has been undertaken by the PCT and local people to ensure that the plan to provide health facilities for the people of Bicester and surrounding areas is a success.”

The full text of Tony’s letter to Sonia Mills is below:

Bicester Community Hospital

You will know only too well the history of this incredibly long saga over the replacement of the Bicester Community Hospital which goes back to 1997 !

I understand from Dr. Michael Curry, who attended a recent project meeting, that there is likely to be a further delay of some three to six months.

I don’t entirely understand why that should be so but Dr. Curry seemed to think that the financial part of the business case is having to be rewritten at the request of the SHA.

I understand there may be further delays if the PCT Estates are moved to the control of another part of the NHS.

None of this gives much cause for optimism, and I of course am particularly concerned that if and when the PCT disappears, it is again probably going to have a period of hiatus whilst any new structures within the NHS get to grips with the Bicester Community Hospital.

I am also very conscious that there is a growing sense of there being two Community Hospital projects in Oxfordshire – Henley and Bicester – with perhaps only one likely to go ahead.

Given the length of this saga, and given that this will clearly be seen locally as another significant set-back, I think I have little alternative but to seek to raise this issue in the House of Commons by way of an Adjournment Debate so that at least I can be confident that Ministers and officials in Richmond House are focused on the matter.

I will put in for an Adjournment Debate as soon as the House returns from the Whitsun Recess, but I clearly do not wish to make any unfair points, so I would be grateful for your understanding of where we have got to and why there is yet further delay on a project which has been beset by delay after delay from 1997!

I am copying this letter to Sonia Mills.

Tony Baldry

Sonia Mills’ response can be accessed here: BCH 2 June 2011 Letter to Tony Baldry MP.

So far more than 10,000 people have added their name to the petition calling for Bicester’s new hospital to be built at Kingsmere, formerly called the south west option, off Oxford and Middleton Stoney Roads.

Members of Save Our Community Campaign have manned a stall most Saturdays for more than 18 months collecting signatures. This weekend, residents will have their final chance to add their name to the petition.

On Monday, campaign leader Les Sibley, and MP Tony Baldry will travel to NHS Oxfordshire’s headquarters in Oxford, to hand over the petition to chief executive Sonia Mills.

Mr Sibley said: “The meeting will highlight the fact that the south west option is the best option for Bicester. We are hoping it will help influence the decision over the location of the new site. The petition and surveys all point to the south west option. It’s one of the biggest petitions ever launched in Bicester — we have more than 10,000 signatures. We are hoping the petition and surveys do not fall on deaf ears.

“This is a golden opportunity for us to get the health facilities that an expanding town like Bicester deserves.”

NHS Oxfordshire spokesman Cathryn Bullimore said: “We welcome the chance to meet with councillor Sibley and receive the petition. Throughout the project to redevelop Bicester’s Community Hospital it has been vital to listen to what the community has to say.

“In particular, we work closely with our Community Hospital Engagement Forum who provide valuable feedback, comments and ideas.”

Next Thursday, the business case for the new hospital, including site, hospital services and costs, will be presented to NHS Oxfordshire’s board.

l The hospital building is about 100 years old and is no longer ‘fit for purpose’. Many services, including minor injuries and out-of-hours, are housed in portable buildings. In 1998, the then health minister, Alan Milburn, told the House of Commons that Bicester would get a 30-bed hospital. Since then, a string of problems has delayed plans to rebuild the hospital.

Mr Simon Burns: The Department published “Liberating the NHS: Commissioning for patients” on 22 July 2010 which set out the intended arrangements for general practitioner (GP) Commissioning and the NHS Commissioning Board. A copy has already been placed in the Library. We are engaging on these proposals and consulting on specific questions highlighted in the document.

Under our proposals GP consortia will commission the great majority of national health service services for their patients, including, where appropriate, community hospital services. There will, however, be some exceptions, where it makes sense for the NHS Commissioning Board to have responsibility for commissioning services. The proposed exceptions include primary medical care. This may also include community hospital services, where these provide primary care services.

Organisations providing community services will be responsible for responding to the commissioning intentions of the GP commissioning consortia and the NHS Commissioning Board, and the day-to-day management of community hospitals.

Last week hospital campaigner Les Sibley threw down the gauntlet to residents urging them to join a rally to show NHS Oxfordshire the importance of a new hospital in the town.

Campaigners want people to turn up with anything that will make a noise – such as vuvuzelas or whistles.

So far North Oxfordshire MP Tony Baldry and mayor Richard Mould have signed up to the rally in Garth Park, Launton Road, on Saturday, July 17, at 10am.

Les Sibley, of Save Our Community Hospital campaign, said: “It’s fantastic news that town mayor Richard Mould and our local MP Tony Baldry are turning out on the day to give their full support for the campaign for a new hospital.

“I would urge anyone in the town who supports a new community hospital to turn out on the day.

“This is a real opportunity to persuade NHS Oxfordshire that the south west option is the best option for Bicester.”

Mr Baldry confirmed he would be at the rally.

He said: “I think Sonia Mills, the new chief executive of NHS Oxfordshire, fully appreciates that completing the new Bicester Community Hospital is a high priority so far as people in and around Bicester are concerned.

“This saga has been going on since 1997 and I understand people locally are getting very frustrated.”

Mr Mould said: “We need to ensure that the PCT gets the message – that Bicester residents stand fully behind the demand for a new hospital with beds on one site within the town.”

Mr Sibley organised the rally after NHS Oxfordshire shelved a scheme to build a new hospital in the town, citing complex legal issues.

Last Monday, Horton hospital directors voted in favour of keeping maternity and children’s services rather than moving the bulk of the wards to Oxford.

Conservative Tony Baldry told the Commons he wanted smaller hospitals to be allowed to form alliances to support each other in the future.

He added: “Such hospitals usually have a particular purpose in serving a significant community.”

Mr Baldry also praised those involved in a seven-year campaign to keep key services in Banbury.

“All the many thousands who have taken part, in whatever way – by petitioning, writing letters, offering professional advice, or just being there – can take pride in what we have achieved,” he said.

But he warned ministers that “much of the story of Horton hospital is yet to be written”.

“Let me be very clear – as far as I am concerned, the well-being and welfare of Horton hospital will always be unfinished business,” he added.

We all face enormous challenges.

We are still at war in Afghanistan with the Taliban and we need to ensure that whilst the conflict continues our troops are properly equipped and properly protected.

In due course, we will leave Afghanistan and our troops can then return safely home. In the meantime, we need to do everything possible to ensure that when we do leave Afghanistan we can do so with Afghan institutions and an Afghan Government that is capable and fit to govern a secure and functioning country.

We have the challenge as a country of needing to decide how much money we can realistically spend on our nation’s defences, and our role in the world as peace-keepers, and how best such money can be spent to provide the equipment and materials for our Armed Forces.

We should have had a Strategic Defence Review some time ago.

The last Labour Government deliberately put back this Review until after the General Election because they did not want to have to face up to the sorts of choices and difficult decisions that such a Review will inevitably present.

Urgent action has to be taken to deal with the budget deficit. If the world and the markets are to have confidence in us as a country and to ensure that our economy can once again start to grow.

So far as is humanly possible, we need to ensure that the Budget deficit is reduced in ways that do no impact on the vulnerable and less well off.

We have to recognise that we live in a society where more and more people are living longer, which is very good news, but also has its own challenges, which is why I, with the Oxfordshire branch of Age UK, the Banbury Carers’ Centre, WRVS, and others, have set up an advisory group to try and ensure that I can contribute in as informed a way as possible to debates in Westminster, on the needs of older people in the community.

We need to recognise the increasing number of carers in our communities and ensure that they are properly supported and I am pleased that Carers UK and other carers organisations have asked me to be one of three Parliamentary Carers Champions this year.

We live in an increasingly competitive world. No-one owes Britain a living as of a right. Countries such as China and India are becoming ever more competitive and we need to make the very best of all our national talent, ensure that people, so far as is possible, have the skills they need to help Britain compete in the 21st Century.

We need to support people when they are out of work, but help them get back into the world of work just as speedily as possible which is why I am very glad that I have been able to help get set up Job Clubs in Banbury and Bicester which I suspect may well be used as models for work clubs elsewhere in the country, in the months to come.

We need to focus attention both locally and nationally on ensuring the young people who are not in education, employment or training, manage to get back into education or training, to acquire skills that will help them get into the world of work.

Both the Banbury and Bicester Job Clubs are increasingly going to focus on helping young people “Not in Education, Employment or Training” – NEETs.

I want to ensure that so far as is possible, the Cherwell Valley and North Oxfordshire is identified as being part of the UK and Europe that is competitive and in which it is good to do business.

We are setting up a local Export Club.

As a community, we are looking to see what can be done to ensure that every business locally has access to the fastest possible Broadband.

As a country, we need to do our bit to tackle Climate Change and reduce CO2 emissions.

I think that the Bicester Ecotown project provides an extremely good opportunity to develop a hub of “green” jobs in North Oxfordshire, to give Bicester an international reputation of a town seeking to develop low carbon housing, and a new sustainable community.

Locally, there is important unfinished business to be tackled.

In Banbury, I am determined to do everything possible to ensure that the Horton General Hospital retains those services that one would expect of a General Hospital such as 24/7 children’s services and a consultant-led maternity unit.

I am applying to the Speaker for the earliest possible opportunity to raise the future of the Horton General Hospital by way of a Debate in this new parliament.

In Bicester, we need to see movement towards the building and completion of a new community hospital, which has now been promised for over a decade.

During the course of this parliament, I will try and keep you updated on these and other local issues on my website – www.tonybaldry.co.uk

At Westminster, it is clearly going to be an interesting time, supporting a coalition Government. In the interest of our country this is a coalition that all of us as MPs are going to have to ensure works on the basis of mutual respect.

In practice Westminster and the House of Commons is very often much more collaborative and consensual than television footage of parts of the Parliamentary week, such as Prime Minister’s Questions might suggest.

For some four years, I chaired a Commons Select Committee in which we produced a number of controversial Reports, but where we managed to achieve unanimity in all the recommendations by colleagues from all three main political parties.

So I see absolutely no reason why the coalition achieved by David Cameron and Nick Clegg should not endure for the designated five year period until the next General Election, which is agreed will take place on the first Thursday in May 2015.

Some time during the course of this parliament there will be a referendum on possible changes to the electoral system. My view on this is that in due course we will have legislation to enable such a referendum to happen. When the referendum comes we will all be free to campaign and vote as we see appropriate and that there will be plenty of time during any referendum campaign for all the various arguments to be discussed and debated, but in the meantime, there is more than enough immediate business pressing on Government for incoming Ministers to deal with, particularly as so many difficult decisions were deliberately put back until after the General Election by the outgoing Labour Government.

I hope and intend to make a full contribution to the work of the House of Commons from the Government back benches in supporting David Cameron and the coalition Government.

In terms of numbers of electors, I have the 15th largest constituency in the United Kingdom and I hope that I can always be a champion for any constituent who has an issue or who needs my help. And apart from being able to help an individual constituent or their family, I find that very often if someone comes to me with a problem, it is almost certain that others have similar problems, and that from the individual one is very often able to pursue with Ministers a wider issue that needs solving or resolving.

Inevitably, Members of Parliament have to spend a large part of our time at Westminster and so I am, like every other MP, to an extent dependent on you and other constituents telling me what is going on and raising concerns with me.

Often in implementing public policy, there can be unintended consequences of implanting changes, particularly when public finances are tight and so I hope that you will get in touch with me if you think there is something I ought to know about, or if you feel that something is going wrong, or a particular group are being forgotten or in some way treated unfairly.

Although our country faces considerable challenges, for my part I start this parliament with considerable optimism that between us, with energy, effort and commitment to the public good, and commitment to public service, we can get Britain back on track and be a country of which we can all be proud.

I wonder whether it would be possible for the Primary Care Trust to give us all a timetable by which you hope to conclude the tendering process and other decisions in relation to the Bicester Community Hospital?

We are now starting the third parliament since a decision was taken, back in 1997, that Bicester needed a “new and enlarged” community hospital, and as I am sure you will appreciate, as was made clear to me during the General Election campaign, there is growing frustration in Bicester that this is still an important issue that doesn’t seem to be any nearer to resolution.

A clear timetable for the future of this project, by which everyone can check progress, would be very much appreciated.

Oxfordshire PCT was due to give more details to developers to come up with designs for the future of the hospital but, after a number of legal challenges against local authorities by companies who failed to win public sector contracts, the PCT confirmed the project had been put on ice while it sought legal advice.

However, the health authority denies the project has been shelved.

Last January Oxfordshire PCT threw down the gauntlet asking developers to come up with a design for the town’s community hospital.

Instead of developers being given a site and a list of specifications of what was required, the PCT simply asked firms to come up with proposals.

Bicester was promised a 30-bed hospital in 1998, but the PCT proposed a primary care centre instead – with 12 beds dispersed around local nursing homes.

Since then campaigners have been fighting for a hospital with its own in-patient beds.

Dr Michael Curry, chairman of the community participation group that was set up to ensure local input into the project, said: “The bidding process the PCT opted for was very loose and experimental. I think it was unsafe.

“It’s likely the current process will be dropped, but the decision has not been taken yet.”

It is understood a decision whether to press ahead with the current tendering process will be made by the PCT at a meeting later this month.

Meanwhile, campaigners have criticised the PCT and called for it to reconsider the offer made by Cherwell District Council – to fund and build a 12-bed hospital on donated land off Oxford and Middleton Stoney roads, known as the south west option.

Hospital campaigner and Labour Parliamentry candidate Les Sibley said the situation had become farcical.

He said: “If the PCT is going to scrap this exercise, perhaps now is the time for them to take a second look at Cherwell District Council’s offer. It’s probably the best option for Bicester.”

Tony Baldry, who is campaigning to retain his seat as the town’s MP, said: “I’m concerned that the longer this project drags out, inevitably the more expensive it’s going to become. If there should be any shadow of suggestion somewhere down the line that this is a project is no longer affordable, there will be something of a riot in Bicester.”

PCT project manager Tony Burrage said: “This legal advice is taking longer than originally scheduled, as there have been a number of challenges nationally to public sector procurements.

“No, the hospital scheme has not been postponed. The original tender always expected bidders to provide a facilities/building solution.

“It remains NHS Oxfordshire’s firm commitment to re-provide health facilities for Bicester and the local district.”

Cherwell District Council confirmed its bid was still on the table.