Children's congenital heart services
Safe and Sustainable review: Better outcomes for children with congenital heart disease
Safe and Sustainable has launched a public consultation on the future of children’s congenital heart services. The Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) - the decision making body that represents all PCTs in England - met on 16 February 2011 and approved recommendations for public consultation.
The public consultation
The NHS would like views from the public about the proposed changes including the people most affected: parents, young people and NHS staff. The public consultation runs until 1 July 2011.
For further information on the public consultation please visit www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/safeandsustainable
We are consulting on the following key areas
- Standards of care: proposed national quality standards of care to be applied consistently across the country
- Congenital heart networks: development of networks to coordinate care and ensure more local provision (e.g. assessment, ongoing care)
- Options for fewer surgical centres: to improve outcomes for children’s heart surgery in the future
- Better Monitoring: improvements for analysis and reporting of mortality and morbidity data
After the consultation closed
More than 75,000 people responded to the public consultation on the future of children's heart services, which ran until 1 July this year, making it one of the largest ever carried out by the NHS. Ipsos MORI, an independent and expert third party, has analysed all responses and published a report which is available on the NHS Specialised Services website.
This report is part of a number of publications to be considered by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT), the decision-making body. The JCPCT is expected to make a final decision on the future of children’s congenital heart services by the end of 2011.
