In response to the decision on Leicester’s children’s ECMO service, Liz Kendall MP said:

Expert clinicians have raised serious concerns about the impact of moving Glenfield’s children’s ECMO service to Birmingham. They believe it could take years to build the service back up to its current excellent standard, risking children’s health and even their survival.

It is unacceptable that the Health Secretary has signed off the ECMO decision only a week after the proposals were announced and without full and proper consideration of these clinical concerns.

I have already written to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, along with Leicester’s other MPs Jon Ashworth and Keith Vaz, and we have managed to secure a meeting with the health minister Simon Burns on Tuesday next week to discuss Glenfield’s children’s ECMO service.

It is disappointing, to say the least, that this meeting was not arranged before the Health Secretary decided to sign off the ECMO move.

I will be urging the minister in the strongest possible terms to reconsider the decision in the light of the serious clinical concerns that have been raised.