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A week dominated by health issues

Posted by Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston, at 09:57, Fri 19 July 2013:

My final few days in parliament before the summer break have been dominated by health issues.

Following Jeremy Hunt's announcement last week of his decision to give the go-ahead to changes at Trafford General Hospital, I met him earlier this week to discuss some of the concerns of local people.

I didn't receive much reassurance.

When he made the announcement last week, it was confirmed that existing services should not be withdrawn unless alternative provision had been put in place.

Work has begun in parts of Trafford to introduce new integrated health services. A new one-stop call centre has been opened for patients who receive a range of health and social care services. Community matrons have been appointed, and more staff are being recruited.

But there is still a long way to go.

I asked Jeremy Hunt how the NHS in Trafford would be able to fund the introduction of alternative provision when we already face a substantial funding deficit, and the cost of existing services still has to be met too.

I wanted to know if there would be more money on the table to do this.

But I wasn't surprised to find that there is not.

This is a real concern, and I am urgently seeking to meet NHS managers locally to discuss the situation.

I was also concerned that when Jeremy Hunt said neighbouring A&Es would have to be "consistently" meeting waiting time targets before there could be any reduction in services at Trafford, he wouldn't confirm that hospitals would need to be able to demonstrate this right through the winter months.

Last winter, we know that A&Es across the country faced terrible pressures, and long queues as a result.

We have no guarantee whatsoever that the same won't happen again this year.

I told Jeremy Hunt I'd be straight back to him if people in Trafford suffer any deterioration in service. But this simply isn't good enough.

Meantime, Labour councillors have called an extraordinary council meeting to discuss whether to mount a legal challenge to Jeremy Hunt's decision. I will be asking for the council to take legal advice as quickly as possible, and I want to know what it says.

And finally, I also asked Jeremy Hunt if he would meet local Save Trafford General campaigners. But he refused to do so. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. He refused to meet local campaigners at Lewisham hospital which has just lost its A&E too.

But it wasn't just the future of the NHS in Trafford that attracted attention in parliament this week.

Sir Bruce Keogh, the chief clinical officer in the NHS, published a report this week on 14 hospitals around the country which have seen excessive levels of deaths.

Some of these hospitals have been on the warning list for a number of years. When Labour left office in 2010, Andy Burnham passed on the warnings to the incoming government.

The Keogh report concentrates on performance in 2011 and 2012, under the present government.

And shockingly, it shows that things have got worse.

Trafford General too had higher than average mortality rates in 2011, though not as high as the 14 in the study. I have been told of some of the measures that have been taken in Trafford since 2011 to improve patient safety.

More senior clinical staff are now on duty at weekends. Tests can happen more quickly. New escalation processes mean doctors are called to patients sooner if there is a concern.

I will be asking for an update on the effect of these measures on performance at Trafford.

And since having a sufficient number of nursing staff is important (it goes without saying, doesn't it?), I will be asking for an update on staffing in Trafford too.

Meantime, Trafford Labour are gathering information about local people's experience of our health service. If you've used the NHS recently, we'd like to hear from you about it, whether good or bad. Please email traffordlabourhealthcheck@traffordlabour.org.uk if you've got information to pass on.

I was very pleased on Wednesday to raise a very different health issue in parliament.

Several months ago, I was contacted by a constituent about waiting times for lung transplants. Natalie, a young woman who lives in Stretford, told me she'd been waiting for a lung transplant for 19 months.

And a surgeon at the transplant unit at Wythenshawe explained to me that the present system for allocating organs around the country means patients in the North West are losing out.

I was able to call a short debate to ask for the system to be reviewed. You can read the debate at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm130717/debtext/130717-0005.htm#1307185002246

I'll be following this up by meeting the NHS Blood and Transplant service to put pressure on them too. I was very pleased to meet some of their staff in parliament to hear about their campaign to increase the number of organs donated, and I strongly support this campaign.

But the way donated organs are allocated to transplant patients is important too.

Meanwhile, we need more organs for patients treated here in Manchester. That's why I'm urging everyone to sign up to the national donor register at http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ and to tell family and friends what you've done.

Although nearly 20million of us are already registered, 57% of relatives of a deceased donor refuse to give their consent for their organs to be retrieved. But if the deceased has discussed his or her wishes with family members beforehand, the rate rises to 95%.

I do hope more people will want to become donors, and more families will agree to donations too. The request obviously often comes at an awful time, but some good can come out of a terrible situation if someone literally gets a new lease of life as a result.

The other health story in parliament this week has been the government's shocking and depressing U-turn on minimum alcohol pricing and on plain packaging of cigarettes.

Medical experts agree both these measures could help to reduce respiratory, liver, cardiac and a range of other illnesses.

But the government is more interested in its big business cronies in the drinks and tobacco industries. And they - not surprisingly - are totally opposed to the idea. It is absolutely disgraceful that David Cameron puts the interests of business first. He should listen to the advice of the experts about measures that could help to save thousands of lives.

Kate Green Member of Parliament for Stretford and Urmston Shadow Spokesperson for Equality