ZooBiotic, a laboratory in my constituency, produces clinically sterile maggots for medical use. Maggot therapy is a potent tool in the treatment of wounds and a potential weapon in the battle against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Even the most squeamish would not avert their eyes from a potential saving to the NHS of up to £30 million a year—at a conservative estimate—or from a tool that could limit the spread of super-bugs in our hospitals and care homes.

Having worked in health and social services for 25 years, I know how time-consuming and difficult it is to treat patients with chronic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers, pressure sores and venous ulcers. Such wounds remain infected for long periods, causing great discomfort, pain and distress. The problem is compounded by the risk of hospital-acquired infection, especially as chronic wounds represent a serious cross-contamination hazard.

Our forebears were well aware of the healing properties of maggots in wounds. Mayan Indians and aboriginal tribes in Australia knew of the therapy. Hon. Members may recall that Russell Crowe’s character in “Gladiator” had a wound that was treated with maggots. It was well documented by Napoleon’s battlefield surgeon how maggots were used in the treatment of wounds at field hospitals to assist with healing. Other military sources have reported the use of maggots. A medical officer in the American civil war reported that maggots were used to clean more wounds in a single day than a surgeon could achieve and how they saved many lives.

The founder of modern maggot therapy, William Baer, pioneered the use of maggots in hospitals, having observed how wounds infected with maggots that he saw in his hospital in the trenches of the first world war often had clean and fresh flesh underneath once the maggots were removed. However, by the mid-1930s, the use of maggot therapy began to decline as hospitals turned instead to the use of antibiotics, especially penicillin.

Maggots act on a wound by debriding or dissolving necrotic tissue. Many hon. Members have asked me about the subject, intrigued by the therapy. The maggots disinfect the wound by killing bacteria and stimulating wound healing. In the past, sterile maggots have been accepted as a valuable resource and hospitals are again beginning to accept the treatment. Maggots are highly precise in removing only rotting tissue, unlike surgeons, who have to cut away healthy tissue to clean a wound, thereby creating a larger wound with more bleeding. When maggots debride a wound, the source of infection is removed and studies have begun to show that maggots can remove MRSA in wounds. 
Maggot secretions also appear to stimulate the body’s healing mechanism and the micro-massage of the tissue stimulates new growth. There are no significant risks or adverse effects linked to the use of maggots in the treatment of wounds. The maggots are bred to be sterile by ZooBiotic and therefore cannot introduce pathogenic organisms into a wound.

Patients’ most common concern is that the maggots will turn into flies but, as they are contained in a sterile dressing that is changed every three or four days, that risk does not exist. Patients also worry that the action of the maggots will be painful. In some instances, however, the healing produced by the maggots can reduce the pain in a wound, and in most cases there is no pain at all. The most significant side effect reported by patients is a slight tickling sensation, while other unpleasant side effects of wound infection, such as odour, are also notably reduced.

The success of the therapy is undisputed, and ZooBiotic estimates that 20 million maggots were supplied over a four-year period, with 64,000 dosage units being applied to 30,000 patients in 3,300 centres in the UK. However, to date there has been no formal, systematic review of the treatment. I therefore want to use this debate to call on the Government to ensure that such a review takes place as soon as possible.

I understand that, initially, people may not feel comfortable with using maggots in wound therapy, and that they might consider it a retrograde step in this technological age. However, people have telephoned me in my office—and I know that some have even sent their personal testimonies to other hon. Members—to tell me about how the therapy has been used effectively to treat members of their family. A review would be invaluable in allaying any negative public perception of the treatment. It would also help to broadcast the treatment’s success to medical and health care practitioners.

ZooBiotic has a state-of-the-art, sterile pharmaceutical unit, in which the “LarvE” brand of sterile maggots is produced. The maggots are bred to be slightly larger than normal: they are more active, and therefore more effective.

There are two techniques of debridement therapy. The first technique involves using free-range maggots—I apologise for the use of the term—in infected wounds with especially deep cavities, and the second involves applying a sealed dressing to the wound. The dressing is best described as looking somewhat like a tea bag, and it contains chips of a product called BioFOAM to provide a physical environment that stimulates the maggots’ activity and development. BioFOAM makes maggot therapy more efficient and practical, and more palatable for modern use. It also makes maggot therapy easier for nurses to apply, and more acceptable to patients.

Maggot therapy is highly successful, and highly cost effective. Approximately 650,000 wounds are treated every year, at an estimated cost to the NHS of about £3 billion. Only 5 per cent. of those costs are product-related; the rest is due to the amount of staff time required over the course of the often protracted treatment that the wounds need, so any therapy that reduces treatment times will deliver cost benefits to the NHS. The average time to clean a wound by conventional means is 89 days, but maggot therapy can reduce that to as little as five days. It is calculated that reducing treatment times and materials costs could result in an annual saving to the NHS of around £160 million.

Maggots cannot be applied to all wounds. However, if they were applied in only 10 or 20 per cent. of wounds, at least £15 million to £30 million could be saved—a significant sum in the health service’s stretched budget.

The second action of maggots—disinfecting the wound by killing bacteria—brings additional benefits. Again, I feel that I must urge the Government to ensure that clinical trials are held to maximise the therapy’s potential. A report produced by the National Audit Office showed that, at any given time, some 9 per cent. of hospital patients have a hospital-acquired infection. Such infections cost the NHS as much as £1 billion per annum and can contribute to the death of an estimated 5,000 people a year. The organism most frequently responsible for hospital-acquired infection is MRSA, and maggot therapy offers a solution to that problem.

Clinical trials are required to prove the effectiveness of the therapy. Preliminary trials have been conducted in the biological research unit at the Princess of Wales hospital in my constituency on five patients with MRSA-infected wounds that were not responding to conventional treatment. In each case, treatment with maggots cleansed the wounds, eliminated the MRSA and allowed healing to commence, on average, in four days. A study carried out at the Manchester royal infirmary showed that maggot therapy reduced problems for 12 in 13 cases of ulcers colonised by MRSA. Preliminary laboratory studies have shown that maggot secretions are active against MRSA, and although the research is based on a narrow field, the results suggest that the potential for maggot therapy as an additional weapon in the fight against MRSA and in the reduction of antibiotic use cannot be overlooked.

I hope that I have been able to highlight some of the compelling evidence of the effectiveness and cost benefits of maggot therapy, and that the Government will respond with appropriate examination of the treatment opportunities for patients who have some of the most difficult, painful and life-threatening conditions. That examination should be complemented by funds for research into maggot therapy so that patients can benefit from its utilisation. We can combat the super-bugs and—I hope—the weak, the frail and the vulnerable will benefit.

A nurses’ study of patients’ perceptions of maggot therapy revealed that initial feelings of revulsion at the thought of using maggots in a wound—about which a number of people have talked to me, too—gave way to feelings of hope once people saw how effective the treatment was. This is not a time to be squeamish or to look away from the serious problems in our hospitals. I hope that after the debate I shall be able to invite my hon. Friend the Minister to visit ZooBiotic to see for herself how the company has brought maggot therapy into the 21st century, primed for use in modern medicine for modern patients.