Debate on the Future of Freeman Children’s Cardiac Unit
Nick spoke out in Parliament yesterday to defend the Children’s Heart Unit at the Freeman Hospital. As part of the Government’s “Safe and Sustainable” review of children’s heart services in England, measures have been proposed to concentrate services from 11 hospitals at present to either 6 or 7. Under one of the four options put forward in the review the Freeman Unit would be closed.
The unit is internationally renowned and in the early 1980s was the site of the first successful child heart transplant in the country. The quality of outcomes are among the best in England. Nick has met with staff and patients at the hospital to hear about the excellent work done there, and earlier this year received a petition from a wide range of local residents opposed to the unit’s closure.
Yesterday Nick spoke up to say that the review’s final decision should be made above all on grounds of quality.
Nick said: “I am the constituency Member for the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne, and on 10 June I visited its paediatric surgery unit. I never cease to be impressed by the care, kindness and surgical skill that the national health service provides. It is very moving to see very young children whose lives are literally being saved, and to meet youngsters who, 20 years ago, would not have had a chance of life.
“No one can doubt the commitment of the senior management and of the trust board to the pioneering children’s cardiac work at the Freeman. The trust has invested in services and, pending the outcome of the review, has a further investment programme ready to go. The review team, in its assessment, has weighted quality, sustainability and deliverability more heavily than access and travel, and that seems to me to be the right prioritisation.”
You can read Nick’s full contribution and the rest of the debate here.
