A and E (Major Incidents)

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Wednesday 7th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I absolutely do agree. Labour Members should talk to some of the front-line NHS workers in their own constituencies, who will tell them that the last thing they want at this time is for the NHS to be a political football.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State will know that major incident status was declared at Leicester hospitals this week for the seventh time in three months. In the week before Christmas, just 67% of patients at Leicester Royal Infirmary in my constituency were seen within the four-hour target, and clinicians, who are working flat out, expect pressures to increase over the next three months. What is he now going to do to support clinicians in Leicester and get a grip of this situation?

[Mr Hunt]

I am aware of the situation in Leicester. The hospital has had significant space pressures in its emergency department, and a couple of nights ago it had a high in-flow during one night, but it is absolutely on the case in trying to resolve this. What are we doing? We have put in £9.2 million of winter pressures money to make sure that whatever people decide the right solution is, it is not through lack of resources that they cannot do it.

Children’s Heart Surgery

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I know that the whole House will want to send its condolences to Arabella Campbell’s family, and the way that my hon. Friend has brought the issue to the attention of the House shows the seriousness of the issues that we are considering. Part of what the IRP talks about is a proper review of the screening process for people who have congenital heart failure. Yesterday I met a group of campaigners on sudden adult death syndrome who had an equally tragic story, and I am waiting for advice from the national immunisation and screening committee on the right way forward in this respect. I thank my hon. Friend for his comments.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

Clinicians at Glenfield hospital, and people across Leicester and the wider east midlands, will welcome what the Secretary of State said today on the suspension of Safe and Sustainable, but I want to ask him a further question on the point that the hon. Member for North West Leicestershire (Andrew Bridgen) made about the future of the extra corporeal membrane oxygenation centre. The decision to move ECMO from Leicester to Birmingham was a direct consequence of Safe and Sustainable. That decision is now suspended—I hope that is what the Secretary of State is saying. Will he reconfirm that the future of ECMO provision will be fully taken into account by NHS England?

[Mr Hunt]

I can confirm that. One of the recommendations of the review was that the ECMO decision be linked to what is decided under Safe and Sustainable, and I know that NHS England will want to consider that carefully. I hope to be able to come back to the House to report what it decides as soon as possible.

Heart Surgery (Leeds)

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady makes an important point. At the heart of this is a change happening in the NHS, where heart surgery is leading the way and we are discovering that we can make dramatic improvements to mortality rates. It has happened in heart surgery, where we have moved from being one of the worst performers in Europe to one of the best, because of the collection of risk-adjusted data. That has now been extended to cancer outcomes and to a total of 10 specialities. We shall gradually collect those data over the next two years, which will allow peer review in a way that cannot normally happen. It is a big change and part of the issue was that the hospital in Leeds did not realise how seriously the data would be taken, which may have meant that it did not supply as complete data as it should have, and that led to the problem. There is a big change, but also a big opportunity for the NHS to improve its outcomes.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

I want to reinforce entirely the point put to the Secretary of State by the hon. and learned Member for Harborough (Sir Edward Garnier) a few moments ago. Safe and Sustainable made recommendations about Leeds and about closing children’s heart surgery at Leicester, but in recent days published data show that Leicester has one of the lowest mortality rates. Can the Secretary of State guarantee that the Independent Reconfiguration Panel will fully take into account those data published just a few days ago?

[Mr Hunt]

Absolutely.

Children’s Cardiac Surgery (Glenfield)

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Monday 22nd October 2012 Westminster Hall

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to speak in this debate under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone.

I pay tribute to the hon. and learned Member for Harborough (Sir Edward Garnier) for securing this debate, and I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for allowing us to hold it this afternoon.

The hon. and learned Gentleman, who is one of my parliamentary neighbours, spoke with typical eloquence, as is his wont, and I for one am disappointed that he no longer graces the Government Front Bench. The Front Bench’s loss is the Back Bench’s gain, and I thought that he spoke extremely well. I apologise in advance if I echo many of his points, but that indicates the cross-party support for the campaign. Although we are perhaps blessed in not having any Liberal Members in the east midlands, I am sure that, if we did, they, too, would support the campaign.

As I am sure that the Minister, who represents an east midlands seat, is aware, this issue has caused considerable concern, not only in my Leicester South constituency, but across the east midlands region. It is no surprise to those of us who have been involved in the campaign that the e-petition has hit 100,000 signatures, and I pay tribute to Adam Tansey, the father of Albert Tansey, who set up the e-petition.

There has been widespread opposition to the proposals from the Safe and Sustainable review and how they affect Leicester. The review recommended the closing of the children’s heart unit and the associated moving of Leicester’s world-class extracorporeal membrane oxygenation service to Birmingham. Local people have campaigned vigorously against the proposal, and I pay particular tribute to Ms Robyn Lotto—a constituent of mine who has magnificently led much of the local campaigning in recent weeks. We should also pay tribute to Glenfield’s staff, who are very concerned, as the hon. and learned Gentleman indicated when he read out the circular that we were all sent.

Many organisations in Leicester and beyond have spoken out. The vice-chancellor of Leicester university, Sir Bob Burgess, said:

“Glenfield is a leading international heart hospital where excellent clinical care takes place within a context of internationally significant research. I would therefore ask that the proposal to move the Glenfield services be reconsidered and this valuable facility retained for people of our region.”

The Bishop of Leicester, who I see observing us, said:

“It is not…clear that the movement to Birmingham will be straight forward… In fact I fear that the movement of these services will be harmful to the nation as a whole”.

As I have mentioned, politicians from all parties have come together on this campaign. Politicians on the Labour-dominated Leicester city council are working alongside politicians on the Conservative-dominated Leicestershire county council and on what I assume is the Conservative-dominated Lincolnshire county council, and they have all expressed their concern.

MPs on both sides of the Chamber are speaking up, and, as the hon. and learned Gentleman did, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall), who in many ways has spearheaded the campaign from our side with her usual pizzazz, and to the hon. Member for Loughborough (Nicky Morgan), who cannot speak in this debate because she is a Government Whip—fortunately for me, Opposition Whips can speak—but who I am sure would speak if parliamentary convention allowed.

I am, of course, pleased that the Secretary of State for Health has today announced that the independent committee will conduct a full review and report back at the end of February next year. Notwithstanding that welcome announcement, I want to make a number of points on which I hope the Minister can provide clarification.

On demand and capacity—I appreciate some of these points might be for the review committee, but it is important to get them on the record—genuine questions have been raised about the assumptions on demand and the capacity on offer at Birmingham that the joint committee of primary care trusts used. As I understand it, the national projections used by the review assume that demand will be flat, yet the most up-to-date data show demand increasing, because birth rates in the east midlands and west midlands are well above national averages. The projections of population trends used by the review team were based on data from 2006-07. Using those data would suggest a relatively stable work load rising to 3,990 cases in 2025, but, if the latest data on population expectations from the Office for National Statistics are used, the projected rise in surgical case loads hits 5,422 in 2025. Questions have also been raised about the likely patient flows, with clinicians suggesting that Sheffield and Doncaster have indicated a preference for Birmingham rather than Newcastle.

Given that extra surgery work, the movement of the ECMO provision, the increased population projections for the midlands and the worries about increased patient flows from south Yorkshire, I would be grateful to the Minister if she let us know whether the Department is confident that Birmingham has the capacity to meet what is clearly set to be considerably increased demand.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anna Soubry)]

The hon. Gentleman knows, of course, that the Independent Reconfiguration Panel will no doubt consider all his points. As he knows, from the outset, this has been an independent process decided by clinicians. In those circumstances, I am sure that he will make it clear that I am in no position to answer any of his points, which must be addressed by the IRP. Does he agree with me on that?

[Jonathan Ashworth]

The Minister makes an important point. None the less, I still think that, even if it is not appropriate for her to respond, as I suggested might be the case, this is an appropriate forum to put some of those points on the record, and I will continue to do so. I entirely understand her position.

I have a couple of points to make on Leicester’s paediatric cardiac intensive care unit, which the hon. and learned Member for Harborough mentioned. There is concern about how the decision will affect the wider paediatric cardiac intensive care on offer in Leicester, with the potential closure of the unit at Glenfield increasing pressure on the other Leicester hospitals and, more generally, reducing the supply of paediatric intensive care across the east midlands and placing more demand on Birmingham. Again, that is an important point. If the Minister cannot respond, I hope that the committee at least will take it into account.

I want to focus on the ECMO service, as the hon. and learned Gentleman did, and as I suspect many other hon. Members will, too. As I said at the outset, I entirely welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement this morning, but—I will quote from the letter, as the hon. and learned Gentleman did—I am disappointed that he said:

“The decision of the SoS taken regarding the removal of the ECMO equipment”—

he uses the rather bland word “equipment,” but the decision is quite controversial, so describing it in that way is unfortunate—

“from Glenfield to Birmingham should not form part of the review as the decision was not taken by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts.”

That is right, but as has been said, the two things go hand in hand.

I shall repeat some of the points that have already been made. The ECMO service at Glenfield is the longest-established and provides 80% of ECMO capacity nationally. Many of its staff have more than 20 years’ experience. Glenfield’s ECMO service has some of the very best mortality rates. The mortality rate for ECMO at Glenfield is 20%, but the national mortality rate is 50% higher. Will the Minister address the decision not to include ECMO in the review? Does she expect to be able to pick up an ECMO unit in one hospital, plonk it into another and find that the same expertise and mortality rates will transfer with it? As has been said, many international experts do not think so—certainly not in the short run. We have already heard about Kenneth Palmer, the expert ECMO adviser, who told BBC Radio Leicester:

“They could never have the same survival rate in another unit if you move it like this.”

He also said—I think that the hon. and learned Member for Harborough quoted this, and I will repeat it:

“Moving one unit to another place is the same as totally closing down and rebuilding from zero in the new place... I have been very clear…that you cannot move a unit; you can just destroy it and rebuild with many years of decreasing survival rate and increasing morbidity.”

In other words, he is concerned that lives will be lost.

Another international ECMO expert, Dr Thomas Müller, says that

“in the interest of best patient care the decision to close down the most experienced centre in the UK is difficult to comprehend.”

Jim Fortenberry, the chair of the ECMO leadership council in Atlanta, has already been quoted in the debate. He said on BBC Radio Leicester that the ECMO unit is

“considered one of the finest ECMO units”

and described it as a “real jewel”. When he was asked on the radio whether he thought lives would be lost he said:

“I do agree with that unfortunately, I think the risk is great”.

International experts are therefore deeply concerned about moving ECMO from Leicester to Birmingham. One of their concerns is that the institutional memory, built up over a generation by the team, will be lost. That is one reason why I find it slightly disappointing when the Secretary of State presents the matter as just moving equipment from Glenfield to Birmingham. We have already heard that many of the staff feel that they will not be able to move. I shall repeat the quotation from the letter that they sent us all, because it is worth focusing on:

“We are not in a position to leave our homes and families, to move to Birmingham to work. As a team of (predominantly) women, we are (predominantly) second wage earners, with husbands, children and homes.”

As I understand it, 13 nurses are required for one ECMO bed, so there are concerns about Birmingham’s ability in the short run to build and develop a dedicated team of expert staff similar that at Leicester.

Given that the review panel will not consider the ECMO decision, I should be grateful to the Minister if she shared her analysis, or the Department’s analysis, of the risk assessment of moving the ECMO facility. It has been suggested in past debates—indeed, if my memory serves me correctly, it was suggested in a useful meeting that we had with the previous Minister, now the Minister of State, Department for Transport, the right hon. Member for Chelmsford (Mr Burns)—that different experts had advised the Department and that they did not share the analysis of Mr Palmer and others. I apologise if my memory of that is slightly wrong, but if that is the case, perhaps the Department will agree to publish the evidence.

We have a campaign including an e-petition signed by 100,000 people—clinicians, staff and members of the public—who are deeply concerned about the proposal to move the ECMO unit. They accept the argument made by Mr Palmer and others. If the Department thinks that there is a different analysis to be considered, perhaps it will finally publish it, so that both sets of analysis can be properly scrutinised, and we can come to a considered opinion. That would reassure us on the point about mortality rates.

I would be interested in hearing the Minister justify the decision not to allow the IRP to consider the ECMO decision. Was not the decision to move ECMO taken and presented as a necessary consequence of the decision taken by the JCPCT in relation to the Safe and Sustainable review? Given that that was the context in which the ECMO decision was made, does it not seem odd that the review committee will not now consider the decision to move ECMO? If the justification is that there is a procedural argument that the various local authorities have asked the committee to consider the outcome of the Safe and Sustainable review and that ECMO was not part of that, fair enough, but it would leave a rather sour taste in the mouth of many campaigners who signed the petition. If that is the case, is there any way in which the ECMO decision can be reviewed? Can the Secretary of State consider reversing the decision of the previous Secretary of State? Many of us who are involved in this cross-party campaign would be grateful for guidance on that from the Minister. I am not sure whether the campaigners would feel pleased if, despite their winning the review, the ECMO unit were still to be shifted.

Many hon. Members want to speak, and because of the cross-party nature of the campaign, we are probably all making similar points, so I will conclude my remarks, but I encourage the Minister to focus on the point about ECMO. There is deep concern about it. People will be pleased about the review, but concerned that ECMO seems to have been excluded from it, and I hope that she can give us some reassurance.

Health

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

Like many other Members, I should like to say a few words about the outcome of the Safe and Sustainable review. Children’s heart surgery services in Glenfield, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall), have been earmarked for closure—a decision that came as shattering news when we heard it the other week to many of the staff who work there and many families of patients who have been treated there.

Many of my constituents have got in touch with me, and I have also been contacted by people across Leicester and the country. I do not have time to go through everything that they said, but Stacey Whiteley from Lincoln has contacted me. People have contacted me from Corby, Coalville and Northampton to express deep concern and opposition to the decision. Many of them said that there were a number of questions that they wanted answered and, as I think that they are legitimate concerns, I want to put them on the record.

My constituents have asked me, for example, why the extra options I to L were not presented for public consultation. Other constituents have pointed out that option A was the most popular, but was apparently ignored. Some constituents have questioned the impartiality of some advisers to the panel and others have pointed out that, in the consultation document, option A was described as being consistently the highest scoring option. Why was there a U-turn and option B chosen? It is right that those decisions should be made by clinicians, but these are legitimate questions from people concerned about the decision.

[Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con)]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, but the decision was made not by clinicians but by commissioners, who have left the eastern side of England between Newcastle and England without a heart unit. Many of my constituents would have gone to Leicester in preference to Newcastle. Now they will probably travel to London or Liverpool.

[Jonathan Ashworth]

Indeed. Many of the hon. Gentleman’s constituents would have been welcome in Leicester. He is quite right: where do our constituents in the east of the country, between Newcastle and London, go? That is something else that many of my constituents have raised with me.

I wish to concentrate on the biggest deficiency of the decision, which is the impact on our world-class ECMO—extracorporeal membrane oxygenation—service. On Friday, the Secretary of State announced that he would accept the recommendation to shift our ECMO service from Leicester to Birmingham. In Leicester, we have had a brilliant, world-renowned ECMO service for 20 years.

[Liz Kendall (Leicester West) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for accepting my intervention, as I cannot speak in the debate because I am a Front-Bench spokesperson on health. Is he aware of the international evidence that shows that Glenfield’s ECMO survival rates for children are 50% to 75% higher than other centres? Those very good survival rates, and the benefits that they bring for children, must be taken into consideration as part of the review.

[Jonathan Ashworth]

My hon. Friend is right, and she makes the point with her usual eloquence and insight. I pay tribute to the work that she has done and, indeed, the work of other Leicestershire Members—I see that the hon. Member for Loughborough (Nicky Morgan) is in the Chamber—on the ECMO service. I thank the Minister for agreeing to meet a delegation of east midlands MPs, as we had a useful discussion.

Giles Peek, a consultant paediatric heart surgeon, said last year of the ECMO service:

“We use it not just after surgery but also to stabilise children and to stop them dying before surgery. We are always full and often take children from other hospitals…Our role at Glenfield as a national reference centre for this treatment is important and underestimated.”

I fear that Giles Peek’s concerns have come true and that our ECMO service has been underestimated.

I was grateful that the Minister said in the meeting that the Secretary of State’s decision was based on the Agnes review, but there are other ECMO experts who disagree with that review, so I hope that he will consider publishing the Agnes report. In the few minutes I have left, I shall run through the points that various ECMO experts have made. For example, Glenfield has a world-class facility with more than 20 years’ worth of service. There are deep concerns that by uprooting it from Leicester to Birmingham expertise will be lost along the way. Mr Kenneth Palmer, an ECMO expert, gave a stark warning on Radio Leicester today that, as a result of shifting the children’s ECMO service from Leicester to Birmingham, lives would be lost, saying:

“They could never have the same survival rate in another unit if you move it like this. Leicester has one of the highest survival rates in the world, 10%-20% higher than the normal survival rate in the world. To come up to the same skill it will take 5 years at least.”

He has been joined by other experts who have warned about the impact of shifting the unit from Leicester. Jim Fortenberry, the chair of the ECMO leadership council in Atlanta, when asked whether he agreed that lives would be lost, said:

“I do agree with that unfortunately. I think the risk is great that by attempting to move and start over that you’d really start the learning curve all over again and the improved outcomes take time and experience to develop, and so by effect starting over on the learning curve you certainly would potentially put lives at stake and it could be very significant.”

I accept that the Minister takes advice from experts, but given that there is one set of experts making one argument, presumably he receives advice from a different set. If he published his evidence, those of us who are laymen on health policy can try to make our own judgments as those experts scrutinise one another’s work.

Concerns have been raised about the Birmingham facility and whether it can deal with the new ECMO service. Dr Andrew Coe, a paediatrician from Coventry, said on Radio Leicester this morning that he was

“not convinced that Birmingham will cope with increased demand following closure”

of Glenfield. It was suggested to me that if the 80 ECMO nurses at Leicester are not prepared to leave Glenfield, it will take up to eight years for nurses in Birmingham to be trained to the appropriate level of expertise.

I conclude by mentioning the family from South Cambridgeshire, which the Secretary of State represents, who appeared on Radio Leicester this morning. They said clearly and movingly that the service they received for their little girl was the best they could receive and went beyond what staff needed to do. I hope that the Minister will give us guidance on what is next for Leicester’s ECMO service. I hope that he will consider publishing his evidence, and that we can have some sort of review of, or at least look again at, the shift of Leicester’s ECMO service to Birmingham.

Health and Social Care Bill

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I suppose that we should not be surprised that the Labour party in opposition has abandoned everything it said in government, but for it to abandon so quickly so many of the things it said even in its manifesto is pretty dramatic.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

If I may say so, I think that the Secretary of State and the Government have been at sixes and sevens over this issue in recent weeks and they would be better off dropping this disastrous Bill. However, may I press the right hon. Gentleman on the answer he gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Thomas Docherty)? If he now agrees that the amendments are significant, as the Deputy Prime Minister has boasted, does that mean that the Prime Minister’s spokesperson was wrong to downplay them as a mere reassurance?

[Mr Lansley]

I am clear that sometimes we need to ensure through amendments that we not only achieve the effect that we intend, but reinforce it in legislation. Some of them will reassure, and some will have significant effects directly on the governance of the NHS.

NHS Risk Register

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Ben Gummer]

The hon. Gentleman is entirely correct. I am trying to put in the round the position of this Government on freedom of information—that is, respecting the Act brought in by the previous Government in going through the necessary process, and in the meantime showing greater transparency in their dealings with the public than any previous Government. One need not look only at the transparency inherent in departmental business plans and departmental spending above £5,000. The risk registers quoted by the shadow Secretary of State, which he revealed with a flourish as though he were some latter-day Carl Bernstein, came from the websites of local PCTs and were revealed as a result of transparency initiatives by this Government. In their motion and in their attack on the Government, the Opposition have shown inconsistency that reveals their true intent.

The shadow Secretary of State repeatedly called into question the Government’s motivation for not releasing the risk register. Their motivation is precisely the same as that which drove him to refuse to release a risk register in 2009. In turn, I question his motivation for calling this debate and picking a fight on this matter. It is not, as the motion might suggest, to inform the public debate, but to fuel the misinformation campaign that has been the basis of the Opposition’s attack on the NHS reforms; to take out of context statements from a document that, by its very nature, considers risks rather than benefits; and to use that in an effort to undermine a programme of reform that has the support of increasing numbers of health care professionals in my constituency to whom I have spoken, and is showing real results.

[Jonathan Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Ben Gummer]

I will not, if the hon. Gentleman does not mind.

That is not responsible opposition; it is dangerous opposition. The Leader of the Opposition goes around lecturing everyone about responsible capitalism, but he might like to start at home and have a look at responsible opposition. In undermining the ability of the machinery of government to operate correctly, the Opposition undermine not only this Government’s, but successive Governments’, ability to make decisions on our constituents’ behalf. Wiser colleagues of the shadow Secretary of State might rue the day that they wanted all risk analysis by Departments to be made public, thereby unbalancing our debates. That would have made impossible even the timorous reforms of Tony Blair in academies and in foundation trusts.

Let me inform the shadow Secretary of State of the effects that these health reforms are already having in my constituency. We have better care for the elderly that stops them going into hospital and allows them to be treated at home, and a drugs budget that is being kept under control for the very first time. He turned down a heart unit in my local hospital; we are now having it built at a cost of £5 million. The reforms will deliver real benefits to my constituents in Ipswich, and I wish that his constituents could have received them too.

Congenital Cardiac Services for Children

Jonathan Ashworth Excerpts

Thursday 23rd June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Jon Ashworth (Leicester South) (Lab)]

I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew) and other members of the Backbench Business Committee on securing this timely debate.

When I delivered my maiden speech in the Chamber two weeks ago I mentioned my support for the campaign to maintain the children’s heart unit at Glenfield hospital, which, as the right hon. Member for Charnwood (Mr Dorrell), said, is in the constituency of my parliamentary neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall). The campaign is supported by my hon. Friend and by my right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz), as well as by many Members from across the county, if not the east midlands as a whole. It is right that this does not become a party political matter.

Last week, my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West and I attended the public consultation event on Glenfield at the Walkers stadium in my constituency attended by hundreds of concerned parents, dedicated staff and local people, not only from Leicester but beyond the east midlands. Many of those people have never used the unit at Glenfield and, one hopes, will never need to use it, but they were all convinced of the logic of maintaining it. We heard moving stories from parents telling us how outstanding was the quality of care provided to their children. We heard testimonies from many of the staff at Glenfield, who described in remarkable detail the quality of the care that they provide and how they intend to continue to improve it.

We also heard many people, particularly members of the Asian community, express frustration, if not anger, about the fact that Glenfield features in only one option—option A. Many Members will know that Leicester has a very diverse population. Evidence shows that there is a high prevalence of heart disease in Asian communities, and some of my constituents from those communities are particularly concerned that Leicester features in only one option. In the past few weeks, people from mosques, gurdwaras, Hindu temples and the Federation of Muslim Organisations have been very vocal about this.

I want to focus my remarks on something that is unique and specific to Glenfield: our world-class ECMO—extracorporeal membrane oxygenation—service. An ECMO machine—I have to concede that I am far from an expert on these things, so Members may want to correct me—rests the heart and/or lungs of a patient waiting for recovery. I have been told by many at Glenfield that this procedure was pioneered there 20 years ago. Today, Glenfield has more than 10 machines, and it is no exaggeration to describe it as a world-leading centre in this field. Glenfield is the only centre in the country that provides ECMO for patients of all ages, from newborns to adults. Its expertise has been recognised on many occasions. For example, last year 110 adults were treated during the swine flu outbreak at Glenfield’s ECMO centre.

How is that relevant to the future of the children’s heart unit? Quite simply, the ECMO service is provided by the same staff who work in the congenital heart centre. Therefore, if that centre closes, Glenfield will lose its ECMO service as well. Of course, the ECMO service could go to Birmingham, as is mooted in the consultation, but that rather misses the point. Many of the staff working at Leicester’s ECMO centre have done so for nearly 20 years. Their combined expertise has helped to make Glenfield’s ECMO unit the world-class facility it is today. Many of my constituents are concerned that it would be years before an ECMO unit could be re-established elsewhere with the same level of competence. Training new staff to have the level of expertise offered at Glenfield could take up to 10 years. That is why many people in my constituency feel that keeping this national service is vital. Giles Peek, a consultant paediatric heart surgeon, told the Leicester Mercury:

“We use it not just after surgery but also to stabilise children and to stop them dying before surgery. We are almost always full and often take children from other hospitals… Our role at Glenfield as national reference centre for this treatment is important and underestimated.”

Although I understand that this is a consultation and that it is right that these decisions are made by clinicians and not politicians, I hope that the joint committee will consider further options because of the expertise at our ECMO centre. Many of my constituents would be grateful if the Minister reflected on the national implications of Glenfield losing its ECMO centre and, at an appropriate time, made some remarks about that.