Children's Heart Surgery (Leeds)

Nicholas Dakin Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to hold an Adjournment debate to discuss the Leeds children’s heart unit.

Before being elected, I spent a considerable part of my career in the children’s hospice movement. During that time, I built up a great deal of understanding of the issues faced by families who have a child who is very poorly. Leeds MPs are working as a cross-party group to do the best for our city. We have each taken on a role, and mine has been in relation to health. During the Christmas recess, I spent two days at the two hospitals in Leeds. I was particularly interested to see Leeds general infirmary’s children’s services, which have recently been reconfigured and are all in one place. It was my first opportunity to visit the heart surgery unit there. At that point, I learned for the first time about the safe and sustainable review of heart units across the country: at the moment, there are 11 units in the United Kingdom, and the national health service propose to reduce that number to six or seven.

The review has already published four options, and I am surprised and disappointed that Leeds features in only one of those. It is my belief that if the Leeds unit closes, it will leave a huge gap in provision, from Leicester or Birmingham in the south, to Newcastle in the north, and Liverpool to the west. It will mean that children from Yorkshire, north Derbyshire and north Lincolnshire will have to travel long distances, at considerable expense to their families. Indeed, I am aware of families in your constituency, Mr Deputy Speaker, who have been using the service. People from far and wide are dependent on the service at Leeds, so there is an effect not just on Leeds but across Yorkshire and neighbouring counties.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on having secured this timely debate. Like him, I spent some time observing children’s heart services in Leeds a few months ago. Only this week I was contacted by a constituent who expressed concern about the impact of closures. That constituent’s daughter is now five years old. When she was eight days old, she was able to undergo important surgery in Leeds. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that Leeds is particularly well placed, and that its expertise and critical mass of children’s services make it very necessary for it to continue its excellent work?

[Stuart Andrew]

I entirely agree. I was about to deal with that point. I believe that there is a very strong case for Leeds. It has the capacity to expand, and is within a two-hour drive for nearly 14 million people. It has one of the highest population coverages among all the units in England, with 5.5 million people in the Yorkshire and Humber region. Leeds is, of course, centrally located in the north of England, and can accommodate patients from outside the current catchment area.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Burns]

Distance is one of a number of factors that, of course, will be considered by those people who are involved in the consultation process, although I advise my hon. Friend that some of the organisations involved in such medicine have certainly told me—I have met some of them personally—that many parents think not so much about the distance that must be travelled as about getting the best treatment for their children. They are prepared to travel further to secure that fine treatment for their children than we may think from what our constituents who want to have district general hospital treatments tell us. The question of distance must be put into perspective, and it is not an overriding factor that secures any decision one way or another solely on that basis.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

I recognise what the Minister says about distance. Parents want good outcomes for their children—that is why parents in Scunthorpe travel to Leeds—but distance can have an impact on clinical outcomes. Certainly, when the weather was terribly bad around Christmas time, the distance to travel to get good clinical outcomes made a difference. Distance and clinical outcomes are related.

[Mr Burns]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, which in many ways reflects that made by my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon. I was making a simple, factual point about the view of many parents at present. As a Minister, it is certainly not for me to interpret and give a view on that, because, as will become apparent later in my remarks, the consultation is being done by others. It would be totally inappropriate for me, as a Minister, to seek to interfere, prejudge or prejudice any outcome of the consultation process. I hope that both my hon. Friend and the hon. Gentleman will appreciate the position that I am in in, that respect.

The review wants to ensure that as much non-surgical care is delivered as close to the child’s home as possible through the development of local congenital heart networks. The joint committee of primary care trusts agreed the shortlist of four options for the future of children’s heart surgery on 16 February 2011. The committee was set up as the formal consulting body for the review and to take decisions on the issues arising from it. My hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey will know that Leeds general infirmary is included in one of the shortlisted options that went out to consultation on 1 March, and the consultation will continue right through until 1 July. There are also public events taking place during the four-month consultation, and there is one in Leeds on 10 May at the Royal Armouries museum. I urge all hon. Members and as many individuals, not only in the local community, but those interested in the services that Leeds provides for patients, to attend.

I want to pick up on the point that my hon. Friend made about inaccuracies in Sir Ian Kennedy’s report. In response to the safe and sustainable interim report last summer, the report’s team received correspondence from the trust about concerns on inaccuracies. The team thought that they had addressed those in the final report in December, and I can only assume that that information is correct, because the trust has made no further approach to the team on the concerns about the information in the final report. I hope that that clears up the problems identified between the interim report and the final report in December.

I also want to emphasise that no decision has been made on which centres should continue to undertake surgery. That will be decided only after the responses to the consultation have been properly and fully considered. I give that assurance to hon. Members today. It is also important to recognise that the safe and sustainable review is only one element of a larger NHS review of congenital cardiac services in England. The NHS is also reviewing the provision of services for adults with congenital heart disease, and I understand that the designation process to determine where the adult services will take place will start later this year.

There are powerful clinical reasons driving the review. The trend in children’s heart care is towards increasingly complex surgery on ever smaller babies. This requires working in surgical teams large enough to provide sufficient exposure to complex cases so that surgeons and their teams can maintain and develop their specialised skills. Larger teams also provide the capacity to train and mentor the next generation of surgeons and other staff.

Oral Answers to Questions

Nicholas Dakin Excerpts

Tuesday 25th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

The right hon. Gentleman has found a cunning way of getting in a point that does not directly relate to the question. He makes a very fair point, however. It is important that people should feel confident that, when they pick up the phone and make a call, they can speak to a person. Telemedicine can provide that route as well, through allowing people to get a diagnosis and treatment, as well as access to the appropriate support at the right time.

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

12. If he will take steps to increase the availability of the BCG vaccine for children.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anne Milton)]

I should point out to the hon. Gentleman that there are no problems with the availability of the BCG vaccine. I am also aware that he takes a personal interest in this subject because of his local experience. I am confident that those most at risk of contracting tuberculosis are being offered the BCG vaccination as part of a targeted national programme.

[Nic Dakin]

Does the Minister not think that it is time to widen that targeted national programme? Tuberculosis is an airborne infection, and it covers a broader area than the areas that are being focused on at the moment. Would not the widening of the programme improve protection?

[Anne Milton]

Yes, I would just like to point out to the hon. Gentleman that TB has changed from being a disease of the whole population to one that affects high-risk groups. In fact, the Joint Committee on Immunisation and Vaccination looked at this in 2005 and reaffirmed it in 2009. We are confident that this targeted approach is the best way of addressing the problem.

Epilepsy Services

Nicholas Dakin Excerpts

Tuesday 12th October 2010 Westminster Hall

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard) on securing the debate and on speaking so eloquently, which focused our minds from the start. I am pleased to have the opportunity to say a few words on the impact of NHS treatment on the education of children with epilepsy. The hon. Gentleman mentioned misdiagnosis and the impact it can have on children and on adults, and he mentioned the impact of transition, with 33% of transition plans not being what they should be. That has a negative impact on not only children’s health, but, crucially, their education. I am pleased that some students have attended the debate to listen to what we have to say.

There is some very good practice in parts of the NHS, but it is not consistent across the whole health service, and schools and colleges could do much more to support children with epilepsy. I am pleased that the Minister of State, Department for Education, the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather), is planning to meet the Joint Epilepsy Council later this month and I hope that she will pick up the matter with the same interest as her predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana R. Johnson).

The education system must learn from best practice so that it can ensure that the education of young people with epilepsy does not suffer as a result of the wrong support in schools. Children experience particular problems in mainstream schools because of the NHS’s occasional failure to get their treatment right. I urge the Minister to work with his colleagues in the Department for Education to ensure that minds are brought together on that to get the best deal for children.

As the hon. Members for Blackpool North and Cleveleys and for Southport (Dr Pugh) noted, the move to GP commissioning offers opportunities, but it also offers risks. Whatever changes are made, it is crucial that young people with epilepsy do not suffer further because of increased instances of misdiagnosis and a lack of appropriate support. I hope that the Minister, with his colleagues in the Department for Education, will bring sufficient analysis to bear to ensure that that can be better dealt with in the education system.

We should look at the commitment that is in place in Wales to have a school nurse in every school and consider whether we should have something similar in England to ensure consistency of support for young people with epilepsy and other conditions so that their education is not negatively affected. There is a double disbenefit with epilepsy: there are the health issues, which were explained so excellently earlier; and there are the knock-on effects on children’s education. That is what concerns me and why I have spoken in the debate.