16.02.11
Children’s heart surgery recommendations due
A review into the provision of children’s heart surgery in England is likely to suggest that four of the country’s 11 specialist units should close.
BBC medical correspondent Fergus Walsh said the review will say that “standards and safety will improve if surgery is confined to a smaller number of bigger units”.
The review, launched in 2008 by NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, will stress that although the units will no longer offer surgery, they should not actually close.
The review recommendations will go before a steering committee of PCTs, then out to consultation.
Anne Keatley-Clarke of the Children's Heart Federation told the BBC: “What our parents have told us is that they're willing to travel anywhere for surgery, they'll go to the ends of the earth as long as they have the on-going, long-term cardiology care locally. These changes are going in that direction.”
Walsh described a “widespread agreement among professional bodies” that providing uniformly high-quality services required fewer, larger centres. Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital has already suspended operations.
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