SHADOW Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth visited Oxford Science Park yesterday to see how hi-tech advances are boosting treatments for patients.

He visited OrganOx where he was shown a revolutionary device enabling livers to be stored at normal body temperatures for extended periods of time, which helps with transplants.

Mr Ashworth said new technologies being developed for the health sector could make a “real difference to patients, and reduce costs for the NHS”.

He added: “It’s clear there’s much more that government can do to promote the take-up of these technologies - after all, many of them were actually developed by British scientists and tested in our hospital wards and GP surgeries.”

Labour MP for Oxford East Anneliese Dodds, who accompanied Mr Ashworth, said: “Oxford has a unique breadth and depth of academic health sciences and incredible potential for developing the health technologies of the future.

“Too often we see exciting new technologies invented here in Oxford but then shift to the United States or China for development and roll-out to be used by real patients.

“ It was great to take Jonathan to learn from local experts about what needs to change so we can make proper use of these technologies in our NHS.”

Following extensive pre-clinical studies and the successful completion of clinical studies, the OrganOx storage product is now commercially available within the European Union.

Staff at OrganOx are engaged in a study in the United States and at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to conduct further tests.

The company was founded in 2008.