Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the NHS new congenital heart disease review, how many hospitals in England and Wales meet each of the Government's recommended standards for congenital heart disease services.

NHS England assessed the 13 hospitals that provide level 1 surgical congenital heart disease (CHD) services against 14 requirements, most of which encompassed more than one of the standards. It also assessed nine hospitals that provide level 2 specialist medical CHD centres against seven requirements. Most of these requirements encompassed more than one of the standards, therefore the tables attached show the number of hospitals that met each of the requirements at the time of NHS England’s assessment rather than each of the standards.

NHS England’s proposals for service change considered not only whether a hospital met the requirements at the time of the assessment but also whether it would be able to meet the requirements in the future. It is at those hospitals where NHS England considered that it was unlikely that the requirements would be met in the timescale required that proposals for change have been made.

Hospitals in Wales are a matter for the devolved administration in Wales.