A major four month public consultation has been launched on the way children’s congenital heart services should be provided.
The NHS is urging everyone with an interest in children’s congenital heart services to take part in the consultation and have their say.
Children’s heart surgery is complex and becoming increasingly specialised.
The NHS Safe and Sustainable review aims to improve outcomes by introducing new national quality standards, developing children’s heart networks and pooling surgical expertise.
Safe and Sustainable is proposing four options to reduce the number of hospitals providing children’s heart surgery from 11 to six or seven to improve results for children.
The review also proposes that many non-surgical services, such as diagnosis, assessments and ongoing care, are provided closer to families’ homes.
Consultation events will be held across England and in Wales so that the public can find out more about what the proposed changes may mean for the services in their region.
No decisions about the future of any of the existing surgical centres will be made until after the consultation.
An independent third party will collate all the responses and a comprehensive analysis will be provided to the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts, the decision making body for the Safe and Sustainable review, to help evaluate the four options.
A decision on the future of children’s congenital heart services is expected in late 2011.
Those centres that are not chosen to continue to carry out surgery will not close but may become children’s cardiology centres.
To access the online consultation document and to complete an electronic version of the response form please visit: www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/safeandsustainable
