{"id":10312,"date":"2016-10-24T12:08:51","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T11:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10312"},"modified":"2016-10-24T12:08:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-24T11:08:51","slug":"heart-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10312","title":{"rendered":"Heart sick"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The plan to end heart surgery at Leicester\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Glenfield Children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Heart Centre is \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a scandal of national proportions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Unite has said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest union – which has 100,000 members in the health service – said the proposal by NHS England was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098penny-pinching and cruel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and not based on hard empirical evidence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A protest meeting and march will be held in Leicester on Saturday (29 October) to stop the moves which will see the East Midlands lose this facility.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It currently performs about 300 operations a year on children born with heart defects.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The nearest hospital would then be Birmingham, but if no beds were available there, very sick children could end up anywhere in the country, with the accompanying stress caused to their parents.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two other units \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the Royal Brompton & Harefield in London and the Central Manchester \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will also cease surgery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Protesters will meet at Victoria Park at 11.00 on Saturday, near Granville Road car park LE1 7RY before the march sets off at noon to Jubilee Square for a rally at 13.00.<\/u><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite said that it wanted to assist in mobilising opposition to the unit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closure before the 14-week consultation process starts in mid-December.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite regional officer, Mark Pettifer, said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is campaigning with patients and their families, trade unionists and health campaigners.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are also closely cooperating with the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust which is actively opposing this decision.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Flawed arguments\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNHS England denies this is about cuts, yet the arguments it puts forward are flawed. These proposals are being made at the same time that \u00c2\u014122 billion in so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098efficiency savings\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are being demanded by the government.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The union said that the NICOR (National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research) data – due to be published this month – will show that the clinical outcomes for patients to be amongst the best in the country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In its initial feedback from its inspection in June 2016, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) reported: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe noted the excellent clinical outcomes for children following cardiac surgery at Glenfield Hospital.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite national officer for health, Sarah Carpenter, who will be addressing the rally, said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is no logic or empirical evidence to close this first-class centre and force very sick children to seek treatment in Birmingham and possibly even further away.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Cruel proposal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a cruel proposal which is completely unnecessary \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this is a scandal of national proportions, where penny-pinching trumps great care for children born with heart defects.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe call on the people of Leicester to turn out in their thousands for Saturday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rally.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plan to end heart surgery at Leicester\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Glenfield Children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Heart Centre is \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a scandal of national proportions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Unite has said.   The country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest union – which has 100,000 members in the health service – said the proposal by NHS England was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098penny-pinching and cruel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and not based on hard empirical evidence.   A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[29],"wps_subtitle":"Closing Leicester children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heart centre 'a scandal'","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10312"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10315,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10312\/revisions\/10315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}