City MP gets to the heart of the matter (From Daily Echo)
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Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead speaks out for heart unit
7:20pm Friday 24th June 2011 in Have a Heart
By Melanie Adams, Health Reporter
MP Alan Whitehead
DON’T stich us up.
That was the plea from Southampton MP Alan Whitehead as the fight to save children’s heart surgery in the city was debated in Westminster.
It came just 24 hours after the Daily Echo delivered our Have a Heart petition to Number 10 – a campaign which was praised by a number of MPs on the floor of the House of Commons.
Mr Whitehead spoke passionately about the need to protect the second best unit in the country during a three-hour debate about the review into children’s cardiac services.
He said: “The NHS has a long and honourable record of stitching people up for the right reasons. If as a result of the review those 240,000 people end up feeling stitched up for the wrong reasons, they will have every right to feel very aggrieved indeed.
“The hard work undertaken by the large numbers of people who organised the petition presented at Number 10 showed not partisan fighting on behalf of a particular unit, regardless of its quality or the service that it represents, but genuine mystification that the process appears to have dealt so peripherally with Southampton’s role in the national roll-out of services.”
Praise for our campaign, which has seen the final total of signatures reach 240,094, also came from Oxford East MP Andrew Smith, who expressed his concerns if surgery at the world-renowned unit at Southampton General Hospital was to stop.
He said: “The debate shows the value of Back Bench-initiated topics, which has enabled the House to speak out on an issue of enormous concern to the public, as demonstrated by the Southern Daily Echo petition of nearly 250,000 signatures that was taken to Downing Street earlier this week in support of the Southampton centre.”
Their sentiments were echoed by several MPs from across the south, including Steve Brine, MP for Winchester and Chandlers Ford, who helped to secure the debate.
He told the Commons: “The campaign based around so-called Option B, containing children's heart surgery at Southampton, has been enormous by any measure.”
He added: “I want to be crystal clear – the team from Southampton supported the Safe and Sustainable Review taking place and on-balance still do but they were shocked to their core by a process that is about quality could put one of the world’s top centres on such a sticky wicket.”
Health Minister Simon Burns was left in no doubt after the three-hour debate as MPs set out the “excellence” of heart care at Southampton, the “enormous”
campaign to save it and the “flawed”
consultation process.
Mr Burns refused to discuss the merits of each hospital, insisting this was a matter for the medics leading the review.
The MPs passed a motion calling on the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) to consider other alternatives when making their decision later this year.
Despite being ranked the second best in the country, our paediatric heart unit is under threat as health chiefs look to cut the UK’s 11 centres down to six or seven.
Southampton was featured in just one of four options, Option B, which has been put out for public consultation, before the JCPCT makes its final decision.
If Southampton closes, families would be forced to get life-saving treatment in London or Bristol, at units which experts say fell below the “exemplary”
standards that the city boasts.
Comments(9)
geoff51
says...
9:54pm Fri 24 Jun 11
If it was not for his parties gross mismanagement of the NHS and the country in general, there would be no need for the closure of any departments in hospitals.
Stay invisible Mr Whitehead its what you are good at.
News Fanatic
says...
8:01am Sat 25 Jun 11
geoff51 wrote:You have a short memory and do not recall the terrible waiting times for treatment in the late 1990, as a result of Tory policies. Labour got many things wrong during their term of government but they improved NHS considerably as a result of spending much more money on it.
Whilst I fully support the cardiac childrens unit staying open in Southampton, I get very annoyed when Mr invisible Whitehead jumps on the bandwagon for his own agenda.
If it was not for his parties gross mismanagement of the NHS and the country in general, there would be no need for the closure of any departments in hospitals.
Stay invisible Mr Whitehead its what you are good at.
The reason for the proposed changes to children's heart operation centres is not funding. As I understand it, surgeons who perform these operations are scattered thinly across the current centres. The proposed changes would concentrate the surgeons in a smaller number of centres giving far better round-the-clock care. The only debate is where they should be located.
lordflood
says...
10:52am Sat 25 Jun 11
freemantlegirl2
says...
11:06am Sat 25 Jun 11
geoff51 wrote:Oh nothing to do with successive Tory governments undermining and ruining the NHS, long waiting lists under Thatcher, Major then!! do you really believe what you say or just ignore some facts!! and what about these latest proposals then ? there's cuts going on in the NHS now - it won't resemble a National health service at all soon!
Whilst I fully support the cardiac childrens unit staying open in Southampton, I get very annoyed when Mr invisible Whitehead jumps on the bandwagon for his own agenda.
If it was not for his parties gross mismanagement of the NHS and the country in general, there would be no need for the closure of any departments in hospitals.
Stay invisible Mr Whitehead its what you are good at.
It is the job of MPs to represent their constituents, he has been asked to do so, as have the council (of a different colour but are being just as supportive). Of course you'd rather have him not do anything so you could slag him off for that wouldn't you! FACT: he was relected.... wonder why that was....
Paramjit Bahia
says...
11:40am Sat 25 Jun 11
.
Having got an egg delivered in their face by the voters of Southampton Test, who refused to believe expensive CONservative propaganda the supporters of the self confessed nasty party still have not learnt the facts about Dr.Alan Whitehead
.
In an election when voters for some real good reasons turned their backs upon NuLabour, Alan Whitehead was re-elected with comfortable majority. Why? Because exceptionally intelligent Alan works hard for his constituents and is easily available to people when they need his help and advice
.
As Alan’s constituent I have never had any problem in contacting him and that also goes for John Denham whom I had to contact on behalf of some other people
.
From his constituents point of view Whitehead certainly is not invisible but for the Tories he may be invincible.
Linesman
says...
4:33pm Sat 25 Jun 11
freemantlegirl2 wrote:You are right about the Tory government undermining the NHS. It was Thatcher that gave tax breaks to people who who took out private health insurance with companies like BUPA, which resulted in a 'two tier' waiting list. Fine if you were in a financial position to pay for it, or work for a company that paid, but the vast majority of people could not.
geoff51 wrote:Oh nothing to do with successive Tory governments undermining and ruining the NHS, long waiting lists under Thatcher, Major then!! do you really believe what you say or just ignore some facts!! and what about these latest proposals then ? there's cuts going on in the NHS now - it won't resemble a National health service at all soon!
Whilst I fully support the cardiac childrens unit staying open in Southampton, I get very annoyed when Mr invisible Whitehead jumps on the bandwagon for his own agenda.
If it was not for his parties gross mismanagement of the NHS and the country in general, there would be no need for the closure of any departments in hospitals.
Stay invisible Mr Whitehead its what you are good at.
It is the job of MPs to represent their constituents, he has been asked to do so, as have the council (of a different colour but are being just as supportive). Of course you'd rather have him not do anything so you could slag him off for that wouldn't you! FACT: he was relected.... wonder why that was....
geoff51
says...
8:09pm Sat 25 Jun 11
News Fanatic wrote:All I can recall about Labours treatment of the NHS is the massive increase in admin posts and the waste of resources on them to the detriment of the medical staff.
geoff51 wrote:You have a short memory and do not recall the terrible waiting times for treatment in the late 1990, as a result of Tory policies. Labour got many things wrong during their term of government but they improved NHS considerably as a result of spending much more money on it.
Whilst I fully support the cardiac childrens unit staying open in Southampton, I get very annoyed when Mr invisible Whitehead jumps on the bandwagon for his own agenda.
If it was not for his parties gross mismanagement of the NHS and the country in general, there would be no need for the closure of any departments in hospitals.
Stay invisible Mr Whitehead its what you are good at.
The reason for the proposed changes to children's heart operation centres is not funding. As I understand it, surgeons who perform these operations are scattered thinly across the current centres. The proposed changes would concentrate the surgeons in a smaller number of centres giving far better round-the-clock care. The only debate is where they should be located.
They may have spent more on the NHS but not in frontline services.
geoff51
says...
8:20pm Sat 25 Jun 11
Paramjit Bahia wrote:The reason Labour usually win in Southampton has nothing to do with the calibre or lack of it of the Labour candidates, but mostly to do with the fact that Southampton is a commercial working city with more than its fair share of social housing which of course is prime socialist demographics.
Cameron’s CONservatives seem to have mastered the con tricks, which used to be the monopoly of Lib-Dems i.e. dirty tricks, spreading out right lies about opponents
.
Having got an egg delivered in their face by the voters of Southampton Test, who refused to believe expensive CONservative propaganda the supporters of the self confessed nasty party still have not learnt the facts about Dr.Alan Whitehead
.
In an election when voters for some real good reasons turned their backs upon NuLabour, Alan Whitehead was re-elected with comfortable majority. Why? Because exceptionally intelligent Alan works hard for his constituents and is easily available to people when they need his help and advice
.
As Alan’s constituent I have never had any problem in contacting him and that also goes for John Denham whom I had to contact on behalf of some other people
.
From his constituents point of view Whitehead certainly is not invisible but for the Tories he may be invincible.
Funnily enough though its a long time since Labour were thrown out at the Civic centre so maybe the voters are coming to their senses at last and got fed up with Labours profligate spending
Condor Man says...
8:26pm Fri 24 Jun 11