Keep the Horton General (KTHG) has distributed a dossier of birth traumas collected by Beth Hopper, a mother who experienced years of heartbreaking pregnancy loss including a devastating stillbirth. Campaigners believe the many experiences - which we have been highlighting in the Banbury Guardian - are the result of the downgrade of the Horton Maternity Hospital, Banbury which was reduced to a midwife-only unit in 2016. Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with an ad-lite subscription to Banbury Guardian, you get 70% fewer ads while viewing the news that matters to you.
That Horton unit was rated ‘requires improvement’ in March 2024 having been a ‘good’ obstetric unit before the downgrade, which the JR used to cope with overflow. A spokesperson for the KTHG said: "The downgrade came eight years after the Secretary of State for Health refused to allow an identical plan on the basis that it was ‘unsafe and inhumane’ to transport women in labour 25-miles for obstetric care. "These awful accounts follow the Theo Clarke report into birth trauma and the recent Nottingham inquiry.
This new publication is supported by the Birth Trauma Association. "The Theo Clarke inquiry report said - "..
.poor care was all-too-frequently tolerated as normal”. This appears to be happening at the JR.
Advertisement Advertisement "The NHS paid an estimated £8.2 billion in 2021 - 2022 for birth negligence and ‘cost of harm’ in maternity services. The cost of running the Horton Mate.
