It's not too late - make your voice heard!
YOUR SUPPORT IS VITAL TO OUR CAMPAIGN
SHOW THE HEALTH SECRETARY YOUR SUPPORT FOR LEEDS
Ultimately, the fate of the children’s heart surgery unit in Leeds will be decided by Government Ministers.
It is vital that they are made aware of the serious impact its closure would have on families throughout Yorkshire and surrounding areas.
The most effective way of doing this is by local MPs putting pressure on Government Ministers.
As an individual writing direct to a Minister, you may only get a response from a civil servant. But if your email or letter reaches the Minister via your MP, it will get a Ministerial response.
The more letters the Minister receives from members of the public, via their local MPs, the stronger our campaign is. Our campaign is fuelled for and by the 5.2 million people in our region and is driven by their desire to save the Leeds children's heart surgery unit.
Please write to your local MP asking them to pass on your letter or email of support for Leeds to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley.
The strongest evidence forcing Ministers to act will be your own experience of the Unit. So, if you feel able to describe this, please include it in your letter or email to your MP.
WRITING TO YOUR MP
1. Please write to your MP asking them to pass on your email or letter to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley. To find who your MP is, visit www.theyworkforyou.com.
2. The postal address for all MPs is:
<Full Name> MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
3. The format for MPs' email addresses differs from person to person. To find out your MP's, visit: http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/
4. If you are writing by email then your ‘Subject’ bar should make the email stand out as being from a constituent, e.g. Asking my MP to save Leeds’ Children’s Heart Surgery Unit
5. Whether writing by email or letter, make sure that you include your postal address to show that you are a constituent. Also, many MPs prefer to reply by post even if you email them.
6. Explain why you believe the children's heart surgery at Leeds should be kept open and, if you feel able to do so, describe your personal experiences of the unit and its staff. In making your points, you may find the following information helpful:
· The Children’s Heart Surgery Unit at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) covers Yorkshire and the North Midlands. Each year between 250 and 280 children undergo open-heart surgery at the Unit.
· The Unit is accessible to nearly 14 million people within 2 hours travel time, including 5.5 million people in Yorkshire and The Humber. This is one of the highest population coverage of all the units in England.
· The hospital has centralised the whole of its children’s services operation on one site. This is a huge asset and in line with best practice, as set out by the Bristol Inquiry and the British Congenital Cardiac Association.
· Leeds General Infirmary is at the forefront of work on inherited cardiac conditions and has an excellent record for providing safe, high quality children’s heart surgery.
· If the Unit closed, nearly 300 families who are helped by specialists in Leeds each year would have to incur further distress and cost when travelling further at an already difficult time in their family life.
· Leeds has the capacity to expand and is centrally located within the North of England to accommodate patients from outside the current catchment area via some of the UK’s major transport links, such as the M1, A1, M62, and the national rail network.
7. Ensure that you explicitly ask your MP to pass on your correspondence to the Health Secretary and that you look forward to receiving his response.
BACKGROUND AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
The Department of Health is currently conducting a review into children’s heart surgery provision in England, called the Safe and Sustainable Review. The Leeds unit, which serves the whole of Yorkshire and beyond, is one of eleven in England.
The Review Panel has recommended a reduction in the number of units to create fewer and larger centres.
The Review Panel has put forward four options for consultation, with Leeds featuring in only one option, meaning there is a significant danger that the Leeds unit will be closed. This would mean that thousands of parents with sick children would have to travel longer distances for surgical treatment.
The Joint Chairs of the Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) are due to decide on which units will remain nationally and which will be closed in eight weeks' time.
Option E
In response to the Review Panel's four options, the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust considered the optimum configuration of future children's heart surgery units across England and presented a fifth option: Option E.
This offers the optimum configuration of services across the country, including seven Specialist Surgical Centres and four potential Cardiology Centres, and prevents the closure of the unit in Leeds. We support this option as the retention of Leeds is the only way of providing an adequate service to the population of Northern England.
Judicial Review
During the summer, the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, which was excluded from any of the Review Panel's four options, was granted a judicial review of Safe and Sustainable. This was granted on the application that the recommended options put to public consultation are fundamentally flawed, such that a consultation based on them is unlawful.
We believe that the grounds given for judicial review by the Royal Brompton & Harefield would also apply, in the local context, to Leeds.
Analysis of Consultation
Pollsters Ipsos-MORI published their analysis of the public responses to the Safe and Sustainable Review in August. Responses from the Yorkshire and Humber region overwhelmingly supported the option which retained the Leeds unit (Option D). The consultation also received a petition in support of children's heart surgery facilities at Leeds which had almost half a million signatures, almost twice the number of any other. Over half of all individual petition signatures received were in support of Leeds. There was also overwhelming support for the principle that cardiac treatment should be provided as close as possible to a child's home.
