A ROW over hospital beds has been intervened by the Prime Minister which campaigners have hailed as a great step forward.

On Friday, July 24, David Cameron headed a round table meeting with health leaders to discuss the future of 14 intermediate care beds in Chipping Norton.

The future of the unit was thrown into jeopardy earlier in the summer when the Oxfordshire County Council proposed to make changes.

Since 2011 the 14 beds at the Henry Cornish Care Centre on the Chipping Norton War Memorial hospital site have been run, first by the Orders of St John Care Trust with nurses seconded from Oxford Health Foundation NHS Trust and since last year by Oxford Health Foundation NHS Trust in a partnership with the Orders of St John Care Trust.

In summer the council decided to revert to the original proposal that the intermediate care beds are run by the Orders of St John Care Trust as it had proved impossible to make the system work under two sets of management arrangements.

Also, NHS nurses could no longer be provided within the available budgets as expected costs of current arrangements using NHS staff would be nearly £1,800 a week per bed; more than twice the cost of Orders of St John carers.

A local outcry ensued with Chipping Norton Town Council granting a request of £500 to assist a town action group to fund publicity and mailshots to try and keep the current service.

County councillor Hilary Hibbert-Biles helped organise the round table meeting with Mr Cameron, bosses at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Healthwatch Oxfordshire, OSJCT and the county council to broker a deal over saving the unit.

She said the meeting last week was 'very positive'.

"It’s not cut and dried anymore. The fact that we had this meeting, that Mr Cameron asked those involved to actually go away and come up with a solution that would satisfy everyone concerned, especially the people of Chipping Norton, to me was a great step forward.”

The decision was initially blasted “disappointing” by Mr Cameron, but after the meeting he said the county council and health service were sizing up their options.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Director of Adult Services, John Jackson said: "The meeting identified that there was a difference in perspective between the local community and their representatives and that of commissioners and providers on the beds in Henry Cornish House. The local community saw them as sub-acute beds to replace those in the old War Memorial Hospital. Commissioners and both providers saw them as for intermediate care which is different. We agreed that this difference needed to be explained to the local community as part of a public consultation sometime in the future.

“Commissioners and providers (Oxford County Council, Oxfordshire CCG, Oxford health NHS Foundation Trust and the Orders of St John) will be meeting this week to discuss how we could continue with the current arrangements in the short term. We will share the conclusions from that meeting as soon as they are available.”

Orders of St John is one of the largest voluntary sector care providers of care in Oxfordshire. The Henry Cornish Care Centre is currently rated “good” by the Care Quality Commission.