Health: Children's Heart Services

Baroness Eaton Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

I can readily agree with the right reverend Prelate. I think it is illustrative of the IRP’s approach that in its press release it states:

“The critical factor to consider, in the Panel’s view, is that engagement of all interested parties is the key to achieving improvements for patients and families without unnecessary delay. There is now a real opportunity to involve patients, the public and other stakeholders in taking work forward as set out in the Panel’s recommendations”.

I endorse that view wholeheartedly, and it is a point that has been directly picked up by NHS England in its press release today.

[Baroness Eaton]

My Lords, will my noble friend give an assurance that when calculating where centres should be located, account is taken not just of population numbers, but of the make-up of that population? He will know, for example, that children of Asian descent have greater need for these services than other communities, making up 23% of cases at Leeds. Their faster growing population must be taken into account.

[Earl Howe]

I hope that my noble friend will be reassured by the IRP’s recognition that the location and geography of these centres and where they are in the country are material factors in this equation. At the same time, I think it would be wrong to give the impression that one can establish a centre of expertise of this kind in every city; that is clearly not realistic. Merely because there is a certain density of a population in a location does not mean to say that there can be a children’s heart centre very close to the centre of that population. This is a highly specialised service and we must recognise that the centres that will deliver it will be few in number. Nevertheless, I am sure that the message that my noble friend has given will not be lost on NHS England.