- Axed centres include world-renowned Royal Brompton and Harefield
- Others include Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital, one of the best performing
- Staff say closures are ‘absurd’ and a ‘grave mistake’ by NHS bosses
Sophie Borland Health Editor For The Daily Mail
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A third of specialist heart centres are to close as part of a shake-up that has angered staff and families.
NHS bosses plan to shut eight out of 22 units providing surgery and treatment for heart defects, mostly in babies and children.
They include the world-renowned Royal Brompton and Harefield in central London and the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, one of the best performing in the country.
The specialist heart centre, mostly for babies and children, at the Royal Brompton and Harefield in central London will be closed under the changes
The decision has outraged doctors and parents of sick children, many of whom will have to make 100-mile round trips to unfamiliar hospitals.
Staff at one unit earmarked for closure described the proposals as ‘absurd’ while those at another warned they were a ‘grave mistake’.
Officials at NHS England want to focus the high-risk operations and treatment in fewer ‘centres of excellence’, in the hope of improving standards and safety. They are worried some units will become unsafe as they struggle to cope with rising demand and a shortage of specialists.
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But there is scepticism the move is part of wider cost-cutting plans to help plug the NHS’s £22billion funding black hole.
The decision is likely to be challenged in the courts by families, doctors and MPs.
Nine in 1,000 babies are born with congenital heart disease, which can include holes in the heart and defective arteries.
Some undergo 12 or more major operations before they start school and then need scans and check-ups for life.
Today’s announcement follows a 15-year review triggered by the Bristol heart scandal in the 1990s, where up to 35 babies and children died unnecessarily.
An inquiry later blamed an ‘old boys’ culture among doctors, ‘secrecy’ over data and a ‘lax’ approach to safety.
Over the past 12 months NHS England carried out a further audit of the 22 centres in England which treat congenital heart disease. It found only four met required standards – and recommended eight should close.
The centre at the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, one of the best performing in the country, is also on the list of closures. The closures are expected to be finished by 2021
These include centres at the University Hospitals of Leicester, London’s Royal Brompton and Harefield, and Central Manchester University Hospitals, which all provide major surgery.
The Royal Brompton became a leading unit after being transformed by top surgeon Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, who carried out the UK’s first heart and lung transplant there in 1983.
Five others due to close are units at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, University Hospital of South Manchester, Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire, Nottingham University Hospitals and Imperial College NHS Trust in central London.
The closures are expected to be finished by 2021, with the remaining 14 centres taking on all the additional work.
But Robert Craig of Royal Brompton and Harefield said: ‘Threatening to withdraw services from one of the largest and most successful centres in the country seems an absurd approach.
‘We are very concerned about where alternative capacity in other hospitals could be found if this ill-conceived proposal were to proceed.’
John Adler of University Hospitals of Leicester, which runs the unit at Glenfield, warned the decision would be a ‘grave mistake’.
Both hospitals are likely to launch legal challenges in the High Court.
NHS England’s Dr Jonathan Fielden said: ‘We owe it to patients, families and staff to provide clear direction for the safety and quality of this specialist area … We are determined to take all actions necessary to ensure that those standards are met.’
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