Caroline Flint MP,

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,

Department of Health,

Richmond House,

79 Whitehall,

London SW1A 2NS

 

                                                                                      25th July, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Caroline,

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to see myself, Sukhphal Singh, Gerald Howarth and James Arbuthnot earlier today.  My other colleagues, including Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Mackay, were sorry not to be able to join us for the re-arranged time but are also grateful that you agreed to a meeting on the Upper GI Cancer Unit at Frimley Park Hospital.

 

We are delighted that you were able to acknowledge that the Upper GI Cancer Unit has consistently provided and continues to provide an excellent service.  It was very helpful to be able to explain to you that the proposals for dismantling the Unit could lead to a situation where the five senior clinicians currently engaged in providing a superb service would drop to zero.  We are grateful for your suggestion that the working group which will consider the future of the service could be expanded to include more clinicians, particularly those with direct experience in the field.  As we all appreciate, there is no substitute for expert clinical knowledge when considering an issue like this.

 

I’m also pleased that you were able to acknowledge that it would be desirable if clinical outcomes at the Royal Surrey opHoHHospital were to be established at least as good as Frimley Park Hospital, if not better, before any dismantling of the Unit at FPH.  To that end, I’m very glad that you acknowledged the importance of proper comparisons being drawn.  And I would underline the importance, as we discussed, of a comparison

 

 

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between FPH and Royal Surrey being undertaken, rather than simply a standalone assessment of the Royal Surrey, and I would repeat the importance of that comparison taking place over a suitable period for the gathering of appropriate clinical data, such as at least one year.

 

I was grateful to you for outlining the context in which decisions on healthcare in Surrey have to be taken and I appreciate that money is tight within our health economy.  For those reasons, we are all particularly concerned that the dismantling of the Upper GI Unit would only lead to additional costs and strain for our local health economy at a time when other economies are being contemplated in Surrey’s hospitals.

 

I am sure that Sukhphal and his team will be delighted if you wanted to visit Frimley Park Hospital in my constituency and if there is any other assistance that we can give to ensure that the superb team there get the help and recognition they deserve, then please be in touch.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

MICHAEL GOVE

 

 

 

c.c.    Sukhphal Singh, Consultant, Frimley Park Hospital

          Ian Patterson, Consultant, Frimley Park Hospital

          Andrew Morris, Chief Executive, Frimley Park Hospital

          Nick Yeo, Chief Executive, North Surrey Primary Care Trust

          Rt. Hon. James Arbuthnot MP

          Philip Hammond MP

          Gerald Howarth MP

          Jeremy Hunt MP

          Rt. Hon. Andrew Mackay MP

          Humfrey Malins MP

          Anne Milton MP