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Heart surgeries should be merged to improve care, report finds

1 min read Health
Child heart surgeries should be merged to achieve greater efficiency, according to an expert review.

The report, Safe and Sustainable, which was conducted on behalf of the National Specialised Commissioning Group, is calling for change in specialist heart surgery centres for children.

The report highlights concerns that the current system of delivery is unable to provide the best possible care because of understaffing. Of the 11 heart surgery centres in England, four have two or fewer paediatric surgeons, according to the report, which states that: "The surgeons are spread too thinly."

Under the new programme of delivery, the 11 specialist centres would be reduced and merged to form larger centres that would be staffed with a minimum of four surgeons each.

Heart Disease and Stroke national director Professor Roger Boyle CBE said: "I have no doubt that children will get better care if we accept the need for change. Unfortunately the answer is not recruiting more surgeons to the current centres."

The report suggests that employing more surgeons would result in more surgeons performing fewer operations at each unit, leading to a decline in the quality of care.

"That would be a recipe for a disaster as surgeons would not treat enough children to maintain their skills," added Boyle.

The report also stated that fewer, but larger teams of specialist units would allow for 24 hour care, but without the same surgeon working and being on call for that amount of time.

The review follows orders made by the NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh in 2008, to investigate whether the sector can meet the rising demand for complex procedures.

Recommendations by the Royal College of Surgeons were also made in 2007, which said that there should be fewer but larger paediatric cardiac surgery services.

Children's heart surgery was suspended at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford last month, following the death of four children while they were undergoing heart surgery. An investigation is underway.

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