Sad news for Leicester tonight

[Ann]

Just announced tonight - Glenfield Hospital children's heart surgery unit to close after many petitions and a huge fight in our County to keep it open .................. how can this be in the patient's interests?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...icestershire-18706536

[marval]

That is dreadful, a unit like that is really needed. Where are the children supposed to go now?

[Ann]

I haven't heard yet which ones they are keeping open but it will mean parents like my friend will have to travel miles with really poorly little children and babies to have their ops - completely senseless!

[marval]

I agree, not everyone can travel, and the children need their parents with them.

[Ann]

If they lose the ECMO machine centre too that will be even more ridiculous, given the number of lives that has saved.

[marval]

It seems to be that saving money is put before saving lives. The whole thing is really bad.

[askyourgran]

The same for the Heart unit in Leeds. Now our children will have to travel to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for treatment. We are all so sad about that. It is all about money and trained surgeons, not the life of a child having to travel long distances in possible emergency situations.

[Ann]

What a greedy grasping world we have become ............ as you say AYG its putting money before young lives, these poor little children deserve better.

[humbersloop]

And the Brompton in London. Bonkers.

[Ann]

Great Ormond Street in London
Evelina Children's Hospital in London
Those saved are:
Freeman Hospital in Newcastle
Birmingham's Children's Hospital
Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool
Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol
Southampton General Hospital

More info on here

http://www.itv.com/ne...-units-to-learn-fate/

[Ann]

Sorry copy and paste went haywire ..
Should read
Those saved are:
Great Ormond Street in London
Evelina Children's Hospital in London
Freeman Hospital in Newcastle
Birmingham's Children's Hospital
Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool
Royal Hospital for Children in Bristol
Southampton General Hospital

[Sqad]

I can understand the concern of parents who live in the proximity of a closed hospital, but to me centralisation of specialist units is essential for the best surgical care of children and babies and in this way the survival rates in babies following heart surgery will increase.

Which would you prefer.......to travel 200miles for your babies or child's surgery with an optimistic post operative outlook OR travel 50 miles to a unit which has a poorer post surgical conclusion?

Centralisation gives surgeons a greater throughput of cases, increase their operative skills,deal more knowledgeably with complications and give a far more optimistic outlook for the future of their children.

This to me is the way forward and has little or nothing to do with cost cutting.

You babies with be treated by competent, experienced surgeons with high tech modern, up to date equipment and away from the units whose surgeons have little experience and poor results.

The British public must get away from the idea of needing a General Hospital at the corner of virtually every street..........it seems good PR, but the standard of healthcare may be totally unacceptable.

An excellent move which will raise the standards of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery and is to be applauded.

[yogasun]

Thanks Sqad. My initial reactions to closures are the same as above posters but having read your post I can see it from a different viewpoint.

[Ann]

//Which would you prefer.......to travel 200miles for your babies or child's surgery with an optimistic post operative outlook OR travel 50 miles to a unit which has a poorer post surgical conclusion? //
Sorry Sqad - for once I disagree with you - especially about Glenfield Leicester - the babies/children treated there do not have a poorer post surgical conclusion, it is the best hospital in the country IMO for treating extremely ill children, especially as it has the ECMO machine. By saying that, surely it is just an excuse to cover up the fact it is purely for funding issues. How demoralising for the brilliant surgeons who work there to be hear that is why they face closure. Thanks for your reply and opinion though Sqad, good to hear what people who are or have been in the profession think.

[Sqad]

http://www.telegraph....er-heart-surgery.html

\\\The study was carried out by Professor David Spiegelhalter, from the University of Cambridge, who led the statistics team at the Bristol Inquiry into dozens of needless baby deaths in the 1980s and 90s when the children's cardiac unit at the city's Royal Infirmary was dubbed "the killing fields".\\\


As for Leicester being the "best in the country"......

His research found that death rates were highest in Leicester, with 65 per cent more deaths than expected, followed by the Radcliffe, with 50 per cent "excess" deaths, and Leeds, with a rate of 43 per cent and Guy's with a rate of 29 per cent.

Something clearly had to be reassessed.

[Ann]

Thanks Sqad - have read the article, I didn't know that fact about the high percentage, will tell my friend. However you take as you find, don't you? Her child has had wonderful treatment there, and thankfully has had seven years of quality life so far, thanks to the brilliant surgery he received there as a baby and toddler, it was a miracle he survived. :)

[Sqad]

Ann......I quite understand and admire your allegiance to your local hospital and it is fortunate that i do not have to make those sort of decisions.

[Ann]

Yes Sqad, it must be a heart-breaking decision for them to make, weighing up all the good and bad points. Thanks for your input, have a nice day :)

[bednobs]

i as part of my job, i was involved in the public consultation on this, and therefore have had the benefit of reading all the details. I have to agree with sqad, this has nothing to do with money, or reducing NHS services, it is to do with the outcomes for sick children. Fewer, larger units ensure that the staff get the experience they need, rather than doing complex healthcare interventions less often. There will of course always be reasons that people want the hospital they have to attend to be close by (having a sick child is hard enough without adding on huge travellign times - when P was in special care, even travelling to our nearest hospital seemed like a huge undertaking) but it has to be balanced with survival rates.

[LazyGun]

Just wanted to echo Sqads points.

Specialist surgery requires specialist centres to ensure the best possible outcomes, and that does mean regionalisation and for some, further to travel. The issue over childrens heart surgery is a long running one, with a recognised over-provision of facilities in London, and scandals in Bristol.

[flicrat]

As I understand, one argument re the death rate was that we were having so many very sick babies brought in from far afield for the ECMO treatment. It is a big blow for many whose children are likely to need further treatment for years and now have to go to Birmngham. And "Hi Ann86". Good to find someone else from Leics. Did you watch the torch relay?