Health: Children's Heart Services

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath]

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl for repeating the Statement and for reminding the House of the events which led to the Safe and Sustainable review. Terrible failings in the care of very sick children at the Bristol Royal Infirmary in the 1980s and 1990s led Sir Ian Kennedy to call for expertise to be concentrated on fewer surgical sites, a call supported by more immediate, recent events, including the suspension of children’s heart surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford in 2010. Since Bristol, Sir Ian’s important conclusion has had the support of the health professions and all sides of the House.

As we digest what the noble Earl has said, two considerations must remain foremost in our minds. First, this issue continues to transcend party politics; and secondly, the complexity it presents should not derail us from our determination to deliver the safest possible care for children in the country. That said, changes of this magnitude must be able to command consensus and public confidence and that has not happened since the decision on site selection by the joint committee.

When it was published, while the Opposition supported the reduction in sites, we expressed concerns about the distribution of the seven sites, skewed towards the west of England and leaving a large swathe of eastern England, from Newcastle to London, without a centre. For a family living in Hull or Lincoln, the prospect of leaving home to travel hundreds of miles, with the cost of accommodation and time off work, added to their stress and anxiety. Therefore, it is not surprising that there has been such strength of feeling, particularly across Yorkshire, the Humber and east Midlands. While clinical safety must predominate, does the noble Earl agree that the NHS needs to give further consideration to public access and travel times when reconfiguring services? In this case, as the IRP points out, the joint committee considered access the least important factor. The IRP concluded, surely rightly, that the decision used a flawed and incomplete analysis of accessibility. Going forward, can the noble Earl tell me that his department will ensure that that is corrected and that access will be a significant factor in a future decision?

On the review itself, the noble Earl will know that one main concern has been that mortality data were not given enough weight. While decisions on this cannot be based on death rates alone, we agree with John Deanfield, the director of NICOR, who, in his letter to NHS England in April 2013, said:

“Mortality is only one measure of quality, but currently is the most robust available outcome”.

Will the noble Earl confirm that, in the further process of review announced today, these data will feature more prominently?

The main concern we have with the announcement that the Government have made today is the proposal to link the children’s review with the review of adult heart services and the implications that might have for the timetable. The Statement uses the words “better co-ordination”. I understand that about 30 centres are carrying out adult heart surgery. The seven selected centres for children will not be collocated with adult heart surgery. As the noble Earl knows, there are a number of specialist children’s sites. The link between the children’s sites and the adults’ sites is not at all clear. Is there a danger that, by linking the review with adult heart surgery, the Government risk a loss of focus and, indeed, more delay? By broadening it in this way, is there a danger that we will lose the consensus that has already been gained over the future of children’s heart surgery?

The decision will clearly have implications for the timetable of the children’s review. It is noticeable that the Statement does not really contain a clear timetable. Can the noble Earl set out a more precise timetable for when the actual decision is going to be made?

I wonder whether the noble Earl has seen the response from the Royal College of Surgeons today. It expressed disappointment that the reform plans will be suspended, adding to what it describes as a long and exhaustive process. In its final comment, it urges NHS England to act swiftly and decisively, and says:

“Continued foot dragging will only delay the much needed reform that will ensure children will get the best treatment available”.

Can the noble Earl respond to that? He says that the review will be concluded by the autumn, but the question here is when decisions will be made and, even more importantly, when they will be implemented.

The Statement sets out a major role for NHS England going forward. Can I be assured that, in the process that NHS England takes forward, it will operate independently of interests linked to the selected sites? Does he agree that it is vital that we do not lose confidence in the process and damage confidence in all 10 existing services? I noted what he said in reassuring the House about safety. I welcome that, but is his department taking action to ensure that all existing units will not lose expertise in the intervening period? That will be a source of concern the longer the review takes and the longer the decision takes to make.

It is clearly important that public confidence in the process and the final decision is maintained but, balanced against that, unnecessary delay will not bring the best results for the children who most need our help. In that regard, I should like to ask him about the comments made by Sir David Nicholson, the chief executive of the NHS, at the annual meeting of the NHS Confederation last week. In an interesting speech, he said:

“We cannot let the tyranny of the electoral cycle stop us from making the real and fundamental changes that we need to make to the NHS”.

He went on to say:

“So what happened when we got a new government in is we wasted those two years where you can really make change happen. We spent our time talking about reorganisation and changes and all the rest of it and we didn’t talk about the really important changes that are required for the NHS”.

I am quoting that because the election is less than two years away. Can the noble Earl reassure me that the electoral cycle is not going to get in the way of coming to a sensible and speedy decision?