The future of children's congenital heart services

The NHS has launched a major four month public consultation on the way children's congenital heart services should be provided in the future. The NHS is urging everyone in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland with an interest in children's congenital heart services to take part in the consultation and have their say on these vital services.

Children's heart surgery, which is currently performed in the East Midlands at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital, is complex and becoming increasingly specialised. The NHS Safe and Sustainable review aims to improve outcomes for children with congenital heart disease 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. Glenfield Hospital features in one of the four options. The review also proposes that many non-surgical services, such as diagnosis, assessments and ongoing care, are provided closer to families' homes.

Leslie Hamilton, immediate past president for the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery and vice chairman of the Safe and Sustainable Steering Group said: "This consultation is about improving the quality of care for children with congenital heart disease (CHD). We must concentrate surgical expertise in larger (and therefore fewer) centres to ensure we produce better outcomes for children and ensure services are safe and sustainable for the future. I urge patients and families to respond to the consultation. This is the most important opportunity people will have to directly influence the outcome of the consultation."

Tom Sexton, a teenager from Kent with CHD, said: "Like many children with the condition, CHD has had a big impact not only on my life but on my family's life as well. I think people should take part in the consultation and give their opinions so the children of the future can have the best possible care."

The NHS will be holding a series of consultation events across England and in Wales, including three events specifically for young people, so that the public can find out more about what the proposed changes may mean for the services in their region.

The East Midlands regional public event will take place on:

Thursday 16 June between 6 and 8pm at The Walkers Stadium in Leicester

Safe and Sustainable has also produced a video, available on the website, clearly communicating the aims of the review and featuring interviews with families of children who have CHD.

No decisions about the future of any of the existing surgical centres, including the unit at the Glenfield Hospital, 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. Instead, it is envisaged that they may become children's cardiology centres.