Every child born with a congenital heart condition deserves treatment that will give them their best chance of life.
Following the enquiry into the failings of cardiac surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary, some ten years ago, Professor Ian Kennedy made a number of recommendations that would ensure that the unnecessary death of children with congenital heart conditions would not happen again.
Had all of these recommendations been followed through we might not be reading a report on the failings of yet another congenital heart unit.
The decision to continue with the suspension of surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford has to be the safest thing to do. The higher than average number of deaths after operations should have alerted the hospital team to the problems within the unit but actually it was the personal responsibility of a new clinician that raised the alarm.
The subsequent independent report has highlighted a number of issues within the hospital’s governance and auditing but most seriously within the team’s approach to patient care. It is clear that the previous single surgeon practise is not safe, nor is it advisable that a unit operate on children when their skill levels have not been maintained or updated.
Currently there are 11 heart units offering surgery for congenital heart disease in England. These units are served by 31 surgeons doing some 3600 operations each year. Some teams offer only simple treatments others are able to offer skilled surgery for the most complex conditions. The number of surgeons and operations varies between units and the reporting and monitoring of their surgery can take up to two years to be published.
It is because of such discrepancies in care that a national Safe and Sustainable Review of services has been undertaken and why every child, and their family, with a heart condition await the recommendations that the Review Team will make.
Little Hearts Matter, as the national voice of children born with only half a working heart, urges the government to listen to their recommendations. Local politics and financial constraints must take a back seat as the service strives to ensure that every child in the country can be assured that the hospital where they receive their treatment will only offer the very best as it is their best chance of life.