£6m spent on Glenfield review
The latest on plans to relocate the Glenfield Heart Unit.
Latest ITV News reports
MPs debate Glenfield's children's heart surgery closure
Review into Leicester children's heart surgery unit
A review into the decision to close three children's heart surgery units, including one in Leicester, will be given to the Health Secretary.
Campaigners have been fighting to keep the unit at Glenfield Hospital open and hope this review will secure its future.
More than £6m has been spent on the review into the future of children's heart surgeries which includes Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.
It follows the decision in July to cut the number of hospitals offering surgery for children with heart problems from 11 to seven.
The costs of the review were revealed in a Parliamentary question from Loughborough MP, Stuart Andrew, answered by Health Minister Anna Soubry.
Review of children's heart surgery units
The Government has confirmed more than £6 million has been spent on a review into the future of children's heart surgery.
The review concluded last year that Leicester's Glenfield Hospital would lose its children's heart unit with services transferred to Birmingham.
Campaigners are continuing to fight the move, and have described the Government's budget for the review as "absurd". John Willats reports.
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NHS statement on cost of external communications
– NHS EnglandAny significant proposals for change in health services must involve clinicians, patients and the public in a meaningful way.
The public consultation on Safe and Sustainable in 2011 attracted over 75,000 responses: 20% of formal respondents were from BAME communities and 10% were from young people, making it the largest consultation in the history of the NHS.
Glenfield costs: £1.7m spent on communications consultants
Legal costs for the judicial review case brought by Save Our Surgery Ltd:
- £301,000
External communications consultants costs:
- £1,740,000
Other costs incurred:
- £6,036,000
Glenfield review costs reach £8m
More than £8m has been spent on the review into the future of children's heart surgeries which includes Glenfield Hospital in Leicester.
It follows the decision in July to cut the number of hospitals offering surgery for children with heart problems from eleven to seven.
The costs of the review were revealed in a Parliamentary question from Loughborough MP, Stuart Andrew, answered by Health Minister Anna Soubry.
Liz Kendall MP: 'Glenfield has some of the best survival rates in the country'
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Calls to overturn the closure of children's heart unit
Leicester West MP, Liz Kendall, has today called for the Government to overturn its decision to close Glenfield children's heart surgery unit.
It comes after data released shows that Glenfield has the second lowest death rates of any unit of its kind in England.
– Liz Kendall, Leicester West MPIt beggars belief that the unit is earmarked for closure when it has the second lowest death rates of any service in the country.
The Government must now over-turn the decision by the Safe and Sustainable Review, and Glenfield must remain open.
She has written to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to demand that Glenfield stays open.
The unit was earmarked for closure as part of NHS plans to reduce the number of specialist centres for children's heart surgery.
Under the plans, patients would have to travel to Birmingham Children's Hospital to be treated.
Midlands hospitals ready to take on patients from Leeds
Birmingham Children's Hospital and Glenfield Hospital in Leicester say they are ready to take on patients from Leeds General Infirmary.
Children's congenital heart surgery service has been suspended at the Yorkshire hospital whilst an internal review is carried out by the Care Quality Commission.
It's after data suggested a death rate twice the national average.
Giles Peak is the Head of Children's Heart Surgery at Glenfield Hospital. He has confirmed to ITV News Central that the hospital is ready to take on patients that need surgery.
He is awaiting a decision to be made in Leeds as to where the patients need to go.
A spokesperson for Birmingham Children's Hospital said they were also ready to take on patients in urgent cases, should the need arise.
For more on this read ITV News.
MP expresses anger over failure to release death rate data
The Leicester MP Liz Kendall says she is angry at the government's failure to release key data on death rates at Children's Heart hospitals.
Glenfield is one of those units due to close as part of moves to have fewer Children's heart centres in England.
She wants the data to be passed to leading expert professor Sir Brian Jarman who is looking into how the decision was reached.
Liz Kendall MP explains what happens next in the fight for Glenfield's heart unit
The MP for Leicester West, Liz Kendall, has met with the Chief Executive of University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and Glenfield clinicians in an attempt to save the children's heart surgery at Glenfield Hospital.