Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the potential cost of (a) transferring staff and services and (b) expanding provision in other hospitals as a result of the proposal to close congenital heart diseases services at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

No decision has been made to close the congenital heart disease service at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.

NHS England will make a decision on its proposals for changes to adult and children’s congenital heart services in England following consultation. It has worked, and will continue to work, with providers and other stakeholders to assess the impact of these proposals.

The process to date has included workforce and cost estimates where possible.

Initial work on capital implications has been undertaken and is published on NHS England’s consultation hub along with impact assessments for individual hospitals potentially affected by the proposed changes.