Leeds Children’s Heart Surgery Unit

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 30th October 2012 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. I add my congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew) on securing this debate and providing very effective team leadership that has crossed parties and brought us all together in support of this unit. Teams need leaders, and he has been a very effective one.

I am aware of the time, but I want to say a few words. I welcome the decision to have an independent review of the Safe and Sustainable process. I do not think it was wrong; it was right in principle, and none of us would want a repeat of the Bristol scandal, but the highly unexpected decision surprised and disappointed me. I did not expect the Leeds unit to be rejected in favour of Newcastle.

Colleagues have explored some of the arguments, and my hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey detailed the excellent clinical standards in Leeds, and compared them with those of Newcastle. This is not a Leeds versus Newcastle fight. We must focus on the process and recognise that both units have merit, and both have patients with heart-rending stories. We need to look at how we take this forward to deliver the best for patients. In Leeds, we have a unit that offers excellence. The question in the review is about location, and in my opinion, that is where the Leeds unit should have scored particularly highly. It is also where the independent review needs to focus.

Colleagues have mentioned the 5.5 million people in our area, and compared that number with the numbers in the north-east, but transport links are also an issue. Leeds has good transport links, not only from north to south, but from east to west, and the key point is that the review proposed that 100% of people in the Harrogate postcode should now travel north to Newcastle. It assumes that everybody will do that, but I want to share with colleagues that the feedback from those in the Harrogate and Knaresborough postcodes—I acknowledge that that area stretches beyond the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency—is that that is nonsense. It is absolutely ridiculous; they simply will not do it. Bear in mind that the geography suggests that if anybody is going to do it, it should be those in the Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency, because we are already 15 to 20 miles north of Leeds, and therefore 15 to 20 miles nearer Newcastle.

The impact of population numbers, and travel times and patterns, simply needs far more weight in the review. I want to see the Leeds unit continue its excellent work, serving the people of Yorkshire and beyond, but as we take the review forward, correct weighting needs to be given to the important factors of travel time and population numbers. I hope that the Minister hears that point today, and that we do not start viewing this as a Leeds versus Newcastle contest. We should explore the opportunities for co-location and for a child-driven service.