16/01/2017 South Today - Oxford

Gove and Labour's Brexit Secretary Kier Starmer as well. Join me now on

BBC Two. Welcome to South Today.

Coming up... The downgrade of maternity services

at Banbury's Horton Hospital is extended as the NHS

in Oxfordshire discusses Also name dropping -

can a new approach to recruitment engender gender equality

in the science industry? And there is the risk

of a frost this week. By the end of the week,

it turns cloudier. I'll have the weather

for the week ahead shortly. It's been announced the downgrade

of maternity services at the Horton Hospital in Banbury could be made

permanent under new plans The temporary move -

made on safety grounds - sparked anger from campaigners

last summer. It will now continue

until at least March. Expectant mothers, needing doctors

at present, have to travel The extended travel time has led

to the MP for Banbury, Victoria Prentis, urging patients

to log their journey And it's not just maternity

services that are affected. Chrissy Ansell from Banbury makes

the 60 mile round trip to the John Radcliffe each week

in order to visit her family at the oncology department.

Matt Graveling's travelled with her. Talk me through the way that we're

going to go to the hospital today. I think it's best if we go

on the A4260, because the motorway is 12 miles longer, but also it gets

chock-a-block with the A34 coming on it.

Right. You were saying that the Horton

was somewhere you had to use yourself not too long ago?

That's right. It was just before Christmas

and I had the unfortunate accident where I fell out of the loft,

and the loft ladder went in my leg, which cut it open pretty badly

and was bleeding profusely. I wouldn't have got to the JR.

I wouldn't be alive today. So we're just coming

through Adderbury now, Chrissy. Let's talk about your local

MP, Victoria Prentis - she's had quite a lot to say

on this matter. And she wants people

to record their journey times. I hope to be able to feed this

information into the consultation as real evidence of what time it

really takes people to get to the Radcliffe and to get

to their appointment, rather than just taking

things off Google Maps. The journey times are

an important factor. Although the population

in Banbury's grown, medical sciences has advanced,

people are getting older, but the distance hasn't changed.

It's still the same distance. So wee're just leaving

Dennington now. We've had been driving

for just over 20 minutes. We probably could have got

to the Horton and back again, if we were going there,

but we're going to the John Radford. How long do you expect the rest

of this journey to take I would say another

25 minutes minimum. If I was sat here as one

of the decision-makers, I would say, "Think very carefully

about what you are doing. I'm sure there are other

places you could cut cost, So we're just coming

into the John Radcliffe now. It's 12.24, almost exactly 50

minutes since we left If it took us the same time back,

then we could've gone And of course we've still got

to find a parking space. Yes, that's right and it can

take as much as an hour, Well, the downgrade at the Horton

comes as the first part of a major consultation into Oxfordshire's

wider health services is launched. ?200 million of savings has to be

found by 2021 by the county's Katharine DaCosta has been

looking at the details. Well, it seems that the idea's

to centralise more services to the John Radcliffe Hospital

in Oxford. Now, that's not going to be good

news for people campaigning to keep Health bosses stress

they are investing in the Horton. It'll become a centre

for diagnostics and outpatient appointments, so that patients can

be seen and treated closer to home. Under the plans, though,

most seriously ill patients would be transferred to Oxford and maternity

services may be permanently downgraded, because

of staff shortages. Acute stroke services could also

transfer to Oxford to make it a large specialist unit

for the whole region. Meanwhile, the overall strategy

is to keep people out of hospital, As such, 146 beds

have already closed. Another 48 are

earmarked for closure. We've only seen these proposals,

we've only had them for a matter of hours, but what reaction

has there been? Well, some of the concerns

are that this consultation's in two parts and that,

actually, many of the changes are interlinked.

Also, it's 48 pages long. Some feel the sheer size of it

will put many people off engaging Healthwatch Oxfordshire has said

that many of the changes have already started to be put in place

before the public's They've already closed down beds

in the JR and they've closed down They've done that before

the consultation starts, I mean, if there's a big swell

of public opinion against it, is it actually going

to make any difference? Well, the second phase

is expected to start in May - looking at A, children's services

and community hospitals - with the fear that,

to make more savings, more community hospitals

may have to close. We'll have more detail and more

reaction on tomorrow's South Today. Katharine DaCosta,

thank you very much. 14 council-run day care centres

for elderly and disabled people have been recommended

for closure in Oxfordshire. The county council is proposing

the closures in order Under the plans, funding

for privately-run services would also be cut by hundreds

of thousands of pounds, but more If anyone were to say

that it is most definitely a long-term solution would not

perhaps be being realistic, but what we are doing is,

as of today, making sure that the service we have

in Oxfordshire is giving the Oxfordshire people

what they need. The UK Atomic Energy Authority is

hoping to increase gender equality Those hiring people wouldn't see

names at the shortlist stage, to try and stop "unconscious

bias" against women. It's part of measures

being trialled at its Culham base to increase the number of women

going into the industry. At Culham's nuclear fusion

experiment jet, they can heat plasma to 100 million degrees -

hotter than the sun. But when it comes to getting

women into science, Currently, 10% of engineers and 15%

of scientists here are women. The UK Atomic Energy Authority says

it's an imbalance they're What needs to change is the culture

and for it to become normal, for it to become a nonevent

that you are a woman in You're just a scientist,

you're an engineer, you're not a female scientist

or a female engineer. Alex Davis is a process

engineer at Culham. She thinks women are being put

off jobs in science You give boys Lego and Meccano

and you give girls suddenly, you've raised an entire

generation of people who are conditioned to think,

these are my hobbies, these are my interests,

these are what I want The UK Atomic Energy Authority has

now signed up to a gender equality accreditation scheme

to try to attract more women into It wants to make its labs

more female-friendly. Some of the tangible things that

you can do are gender-blind recruitment practices

at the shortlisting stage. This is something that's been

in the news recently. Family-friendly working

policies, flexible working. A lack of female scientists

and engineers is not just a problem at Culham Science Centre -

it's happening across the country. But it's hoped measures being tried

out here could encourage more women to embark on careers

in this industry. Finally, how about this

for a lucky escape? An 80-year-old motorist

was unhurt after this car crashed into a pontoon

on the River Thames in Henley. Emergency services helped free

the pensioner within 10 It took two hours

to recover the car. The driver was described

as "a bit shocked". Weather next, starting with

the regional forecast with Alexis. But that's it from us.

Good night. After a nearly damp start

to the week, some brighter and sunnier spells with a chance

of frost at times. Towards the latter part of the week,

cloud will make a return, So a mainly dry week,

mainly settled, with Overnight tonight,

a good deal of cloud, Temperatures in the countryside

may well drop to freezing, so, where we have clearing skies

for eastern parts of the region, the chance there we could

have a frost first thing tomorrow. In most places, temperatures

will be above freezing. But the sun will start

to make an appearance. More cloud the further

north and west you are The best of the sunshine down

towards the south and east. In the sunny spells,

temperatures will struggle to a high of just four or five Celsius,

so quite a cold feeling day, especially where

we have all that cloud. But the winds will be light,

so pleasant in the sunshine. Through the course of tomorrow

night, the cloud will disperse and we'll see clearing skies

and that means one thing - a widespread sharp frost,

a hard frost, in fact, first thing on Wednesday morning.

A very chilly start to the day. Temperatures could start in towns

and cities at minus two Celsius. In the countryside,

a low of minus three Light winds first

thing on Wednesday. It's a decent day, lots of sunshine,

more cloud further north. That cloud may start

to spill southwards The best sunshine for southern

parts of the county, with temperatures on Wednesday

reaching a high of three Through Thursday, high pressure

still dominates our weather. It stays with us

through much of the week. A weather front moving southwards

will bring us more cloud. Where it's thick, the cloud,

we could have the odd isolated shower, but generally,

it will be dry on Thursday. Dry also through Friday,

with temperatures reaching a high Looking ahead to the weekend, mainly

dry but quite cloudy at times. Some brighter spells are possible.

Now your national forecast. perhaps a little milder. If you like

the mild weather, you'll have to head elsewhere in the country. Find

out more in the national weather forecast. Our weather is going

against normal expectations this week. In Highland Scotland some snow

to be seen on the hills. Temperatures as high as 12 Celsius

today. Over the next few days the coldest air is in the far south-east

of England where there is sunshine to be had. Four or five Celsius in

Kent. Differences remain over the next few days and here is why. I

pressure in control of the weather. Some clear a continental air, but

coming into Scotland from the Atlantic plenty of clouds around.

Outbreaks of rain