20 May 2014
Bristol children’s hospital welcomes congenital heart review - NHS England’s national review of congenital heart services visits Bristol
Staff at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children are welcoming
members of the national congenital heart review team onto its wards
today (Tuesday 20 May) and are taking them on a tour of the
hospital's paediatric and adult cardiac units to meet with
patients and their families.
NHS England's review team, chaired by Professor Deirdre Kelly,
is visiting all specialist units currently providing congenital
heart surgery in England. Bristol Royal Hospital for Children
treats more than 900 children each year, including 110 from Bristol
last year, and the panel's visit will help inform NHS England's
strategy on the future provision of congenital heart services in
England.
As part of the panel's visit they are discussing the service
with doctors, nurses, governors, patients and families. The
panel is also visiting the 16-bed children's heart surgery ward
(Ward 32) as well as the high dependency unit and other relevant
wards in the hospital.
Robert Woolley, chief executive of University Hospitals Bristol
NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We thank Professor Kelly and her team
for visiting the service today. We wholeheartedly support NHS
England in its process to improve heart services in England and
will do whatever we can to help support the review."
"Our clinicians work closely with colleagues across the country
and regularly visit other specialist centres to help us refine the
services that we deliver. We support any efforts that help the NHS
advance specialist cardiac services for children and adults in
England."
Gemma Penney's daughter Imogen, has been cared for by the
children's heart surgery unit for four and a half years, and will
be meeting the review team. She said: "I am very much looking
forward to the visit of the review team and highlighting some of
our experiences at Bristol Royal Children's Hospital. Imogen has
been looked after by the heart unit since she was born and I can't
fault the care she receives. The staff are brilliant and what
Imogen particularly likes is that she feels comfortable there, she
is never rushed. I wouldn't want Imogen to go anywhere else for her
care. "
In 2010, a panel visited Bristol to assess its children's heart
service as part of theSafe and Sustainableprocess, which preceded
the current NHS England review. When options for reducing the
number of specialist surgical units in England were announced in
2011, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children was included in all four
options to operate as one of six or seven specialist children's
heart centres in the future.
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