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26/04/2010
Four Child Heart Surgery Units 'Should Shut'
Experts have advised that four of 11 children's heart surgery units across the UK should be closed.
The review from a steering group on behalf of the National Specialised Commissioning Group (NSCG) recommend the units should stop performing operations and merge with bigger hospitals to improve standards and safety.
It said that the current "ad hoc" network cannot continue and that the changes must be carried out as a matter of urgency.
A minimum of four surgeons per unit is recommended to ensure that they can handle the range of complex operations and cover for each other.
Two of London's three units will probably merge, most likely involving the amalgamation of Guy's and St Thomas' with the Royal Brompton or Great Ormond Street, and the reorganisation may also mean the unit at Leicester being brought under Birmingham Children's Hospital and centres in Leeds and Newcastle combining. Given Newcastle's world-class transplant facilities, Leeds staff may move north.
All 11 paediatric heart centres are being assessed to decide which to keep open.
The intention is to improve care, but patients' groups say long journeys could put pressure on families.
The review was ordered in 2008 by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, to ensure that the sector, considered to have the most advanced monitoring of patient outcomes in the world, can meet the rising demand for increasingly complex procedures.
The next stage is individual centre assessments, to be completed by July, and final recommendations from the NCSG, to be put out to public consultation in the autumn. Work will begin on the reconfiguration early next year.
The work of these units first came under scrutiny following the 1990s Bristol heart babies scandal when children having heart surgery died needlessly.
(LB/BMcC)
The review from a steering group on behalf of the National Specialised Commissioning Group (NSCG) recommend the units should stop performing operations and merge with bigger hospitals to improve standards and safety.
It said that the current "ad hoc" network cannot continue and that the changes must be carried out as a matter of urgency.
A minimum of four surgeons per unit is recommended to ensure that they can handle the range of complex operations and cover for each other.
Two of London's three units will probably merge, most likely involving the amalgamation of Guy's and St Thomas' with the Royal Brompton or Great Ormond Street, and the reorganisation may also mean the unit at Leicester being brought under Birmingham Children's Hospital and centres in Leeds and Newcastle combining. Given Newcastle's world-class transplant facilities, Leeds staff may move north.
All 11 paediatric heart centres are being assessed to decide which to keep open.
The intention is to improve care, but patients' groups say long journeys could put pressure on families.
The review was ordered in 2008 by Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, to ensure that the sector, considered to have the most advanced monitoring of patient outcomes in the world, can meet the rising demand for increasingly complex procedures.
The next stage is individual centre assessments, to be completed by July, and final recommendations from the NCSG, to be put out to public consultation in the autumn. Work will begin on the reconfiguration early next year.
The work of these units first came under scrutiny following the 1990s Bristol heart babies scandal when children having heart surgery died needlessly.
(LB/BMcC)
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