Vascular Services (Wycombe Hospital)

Debate between Steve Baker and Eric Ollerenshaw

Monday 14th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

I am most grateful to you for that, Mr Speaker. I am also grateful to my hon. Friend the Minister for being here at this hour to discuss vascular services in Wycombe hospital, as I know he has thought carefully about the subject. It is a subject that will be of interest to your constituents, Mr Speaker, so I am glad to see you in the Chair, and to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr Grieve), a number of whose constituents campaign vigorously on the issue, so I am glad to see him here supporting this case. The nub of the issue is that we in Wycombe have been told repeatedly that it is in our interests for hospital services to be centralised away. There is today a clear momentum to centralise vascular services for the Thames Valley in Oxford, yet Wycombe enjoys better results and Oxford has been subject to a range of criticisms, as I shall set out.

We need to look at the historical context to understand why the opposition to what is happening is so vociferous. Wycombe hospital is in a position perhaps typical of a generation of district general hospitals: we lost our accident and emergency unit; we lost consultant-led maternity, retaining a midwife-led unit as a concession; we lost paediatrics; and in 2012 the emergency medical centre—the EMC—was downgraded to a minor injuries unit, repeating much of the local outcry about the loss of the accident and emergency unit. At each stage, campaigners expressed fears that the withdrawal of services would lead eventually to the closure of the hospital. At each stage, those fears were vigorously stoked by dissenting voices among the affected medical staff. At each stage, the NHS management no less vigorously denied that such an outcome could ever occur, and after each stage the NHS management went on to propose further service withdrawals. It is no wonder so many local people fear closure.

In Wycombe, we do have the Buckinghamshire units for cardiology and stroke, which treat two of the biggest killers, but, scandalously, the minor injuries unit recently failed to admit a lady who arrived with suspected heart trouble—the Minister will recall taking my question in the House on that occasion. It is now being suggested by some clinicians, specifically those within the vascular unit at Wycombe, that losing vascular services at the hospital could threaten those excellent services we have left.

I feel sure that the Minister will appreciate the excruciating sensitivity of this issue. The long, grinding decline of our hospital has sown anger, despair and cynicism, not least because the public have come to appreciate that NHS consultations seem to be exercises in manufacturing consent—or perhaps the appearance of consent—rather than providing democratic accountability and control.

The recent “Better Healthcare in Bucks” consultation on the downgrade of the EMC mentioned vascular services, supporting the view that vascular should remain in Wycombe until a review in 2014. We are now approaching that review and a series of leaked documents has shown two important points: first, vascular care in Wycombe is superior to that in Oxford; and, secondly, the transfer of vascular services to Oxford is essentially a done deal.

Let us consider how vascular services have changed, because I know that it has affected many of my hon. Friends and Opposition Members. Diseases of the arteries and veins used to be treated by surgery only, but problems are now reached via other blood vessels using techniques known as interventional radiology. Vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists support cardiology, cardiac surgery, stroke and other disciplines. The new vascular specialty was approved by Parliament in March 2012. Vascular is now listed as a specialty on the General Medical Council website, although the approved curriculum and assessment system was not available today. There is also a Vascular Society.

According to the authors of a report on the centralisation of vascular services in Oxford,

“the advent of separate specialty status for vascular surgery together with speciality commissioning plans for 2013 onwards…will reduce the number of hospitals providing vascular surgery to about 50 in England and Wales”

from 150, and

“commissioners will not purchase arterial interventions except from arterial centres.”

I think that is why the issue has affected so many of my colleagues.

[Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. In north Lancashire, the situation is similar. It is perhaps not the policy that is the problem but the implementation of it, because if it is implemented some of my constituents, particularly in rural areas, will face transport times of more than one and a half hours. The national target for improvement is just one hour, which is why, unfortunately, I have to support my local hospital, the Royal Lancaster infirmary, which has reached the point of considering taking the implementation of the policy to judicial review.

[Steve Baker]

My hon. Friend raises an important point about transport, which will be an issue for many of our constituents, not least because they will not have cars.

People in need of vascular care will include those with abdominal aortic aneurysms, a life-threatening weakness of the main artery that must be repaired, and those who have had strokes or mini-strokes—transient ischaemic attacks. After a stroke, drugs are administered immediately, but they need to be followed up with a procedure to clear the carotid artery, called a carotid endarterectomy or, mercifully, a CEA. Other people requiring care will include those with poor blood supply, including smokers and diabetics, who might endure serious complications that might even lead to amputation.

Wycombe hospital provides the full range of services. It is proposed to move them all to Oxford university hospitals on the basis that the present arrangements are “not sustainable”, but I have yet to see evidence that supports that assertion. Leaked documents suggest that Oxford provides worse outcomes and is struggling to be ready.