A DAMNING report has criticised plans to overhaul services at Wantage Community Hospital for not listening to locals.

A group of councillors and doctors set up to scrutinise the so-called OX12 project, which would see services at the hospital permanently changed, also said the scheme was no basis on which to start a much wider reorganisation of hospital services across the rest of Oxfordshire.

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The report by the OX12 task and finish group said: "In summary, the OX12 project to pilot the Population Health Care Needs Assessment Framework (PHCNAF) has failed.

"It has failed as a result of the poor management and realisation of the PHCNAF, together with a poor level of engagement and communication with the residents of the OX12 postcode."

The PHCNAF is a proposal by the Oxfordshire CCG which would see most patients in need of serious treatment visiting large central hospitals like the John Radcliffe, with fewer services at small community hospitals like Wantage, and more home visits carried out instead.

Wantage Community Hospital currently houses a midwife-led maternity unit, and physiotherapist.

There were also 12 in-patient beds aimed at rehabilitating people recovering from long hospital stays, but these 'temporarily' closed in 2016 after a legionella scare in the building, and have not reopened since.

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Oxford Health Foundation Trust has previously told councillors scrutinising the OX12 project it plans to replace the beds with a move towards more rehabilitation care within people’s own homes.

Responding to the Task and Finish group's report, the Oxfordshire CCG said the 'outcomes of the OX12 report marked a point in time'.

It added a new document called the Oxfordshire Community Service Strategy would lay out its plans for the future of Wantage Hospital.

Oxfordshire County Council's Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee will discuss the OX12 report at a meeting on Thursday.

Julie Mabberley, the chair of the OX12 stakeholder reference group, is due to speak at the meeting, and will say that the new Community Services Strategy feels like 'deja vu' because of its similarities to earlier reports on the OX12 project.