Browse content similar to 31/10/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The NHS say it is about improving care for children, but not everyone | :00:23. | :00:28. | |
is happy. It is my own opinion, but I have a feeling that there has | :00:28. | :00:35. | |
been agreed determination. -- 83 determination. We speak to the | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
parents who fear the changes could call their families apart. | :00:40. | :00:45. | |
think it is going to be a nightmare, and might therefore asked tracking | :00:45. | :00:52. | |
backwards and forwards, spitting the family up. -- splitting the | :00:52. | :00:58. | |
family up. And we hear from the government's former Hearts chief, | :00:58. | :01:04. | |
for the reasons. People had been living on a hand-to-mouth basis in | :01:04. | :01:14. | |
:01:14. | :01:23. | ||
There is nothing more emotive than the health and welfare of children. | :01:23. | :01:27. | |
Proposals to dramatically reduce the number of children centres | :01:27. | :01:32. | |
offering heart surgery have sparked controversy. Some centres like the | :01:32. | :01:38. | |
one here in Leeds could close. Tonight, we investigate the claims | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
and counter claims being made in this increasingly bitter review. | :01:41. | :01:49. | |
This film does include injury -- images of surgery. | :01:49. | :01:59. | |
It has just been, just been dreadful. We have to try and cope, | :01:59. | :02:06. | |
been Cope, -- be strong, but it is hard. She is a six year-old | :02:06. | :02:12. | |
youngster with a hole in her heart. There is no doubt, that if she is | :02:12. | :02:20. | |
left as she is, that her lifespan will be significantly reduced. | :02:20. | :02:26. | |
here I am, I am here, I have not gone anywhere. OK, it's OK. Emily | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
Taylor is one of around 3500 children who need heart surgery | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
this year. It is a desperately worrying time for families, but for | :02:35. | :02:40. | |
many, it could be the difference between a life and death. From the | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
point of view of a surgeon, this operation is very satisfying, | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
because there is a lot of surgery we do which is not curative. We | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
cannot cure the children. Where as this is a corrective operation, and | :02:53. | :02:59. | |
that is very satisfying. Because it is do the operation, job done, | :02:59. | :03:05. | |
youngster is normal. But the way children's heart surgery in England | :03:05. | :03:10. | |
is carried out is about to change. The NHS is proposing a boat -- a | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
radical overhaul which could see some surgical centres close. The | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
result of their review will be announced before the end of the | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
year, but this centre in Leeds is one of those threatened. I am here, | :03:21. | :03:29. | |
I have not got anywhere. You have got to take the positives, at the | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
moment you are just concerned that your daughter is down there, and | :03:32. | :03:40. | |
everything is out of your control. Well done, well done. A nice big | :03:40. | :03:46. | |
sleep now. For Emily, her parents and thousands in their situation, | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
the proposed changes could have an effect for years to come. Yet for | :03:50. | :03:58. | |
now, their only focus is on the next few hours. | :03:58. | :04:05. | |
We are gathered here today because we are victims of a gross injustice. | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
The injustice that our children were told -- taken from us. | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
review into children's heart services was set up in 2008, but it | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
can trace its roots back to the scandal at Bristol Royal Infirmary | :04:17. | :04:23. | |
in the 1990s, where but we've -- between 30 and 35 children died due | :04:23. | :04:28. | |
to failings in care. The subsequent inquiry made 198 recommendations. | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
One of them was to stipulate the minimum number of operations that | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
hospitals should be carrying out to ensure that surgeon's skills are | :04:36. | :04:42. | |
kept shop. The idea being, the more you do, the better you are. The NHS | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
is looking to reorganise and improve children's hearts services | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
across England. The NHS believes that to provide 24 hour care, 365 | :04:51. | :04:56. | |
days a year, each hospital needs for surgeons and each site should | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
be performing a minimum of 400 operations per year with an optimum | :05:00. | :05:08. | |
or 500 ft. The aim is also to provide better care closer to | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
children's homes. To achieve this, the NHS needs to close some centres | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
and consolidate into fewer, bigger units, supported by regional | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
networks offering non-surgical care. There are 11 hospitals offering | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
children's heart surgery in England, but the NHS once that cuts to six | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
or seven. They have come up with four options for reconfiguration in | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
which five centres remain in all scenarios, leading Newcastle, Leeds, | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
Southampton and Leicester under threat. The Royal Brompton in | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
London does not appear in any of the options and Oxford ceased | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
operating earlier this year. It is how this option was reached and the | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
press is behind it which had led to an increasingly bitter dispute. -- | :05:52. | :05:59. | |
for the process behind it. Behind me, you can see 70 parents to have | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
packed this meeting room here at Elland room. -- Elland Road. It is | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
right we have proper specialisms so we save more lives. For those | :06:08. | :06:13. | |
surgical centres under threat, the last year has seen clinicians, | :06:13. | :06:15. | |
campaigners and operate -- politicians embroiled in a battle | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
to save their centre. If a centre have to close in the north, it | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
should not be us, it needs to be Newcastle. There are serious | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
concerns about the process that had been raised with me by clinicians | :06:26. | :06:32. | |
and parents. Leeds campaigners handed in a 600,000 signature | :06:32. | :06:36. | |
petition to Downing Street, and the Royal Brompton Hospital in London | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
became the first NHS body ever to take the NHS to court. For many of | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
those involved, there was growing concern about how the review was | :06:45. | :06:50. | |
being carried out and some of the assumptions it was based on. Keep | :06:50. | :06:56. | |
going, that's good. Very nice. Children's heart surgery is | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
extremely complex and the surgeons who carried it out of among the | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
most skilled in their profession. Emily's procedure to correct a hole | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
in the hot will take four hours, but some procedures will last over | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
15 hours. One of the key principles underpinning the review is the idea | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
of four surgeons carried out a minimum of 400 paediatric heart | :07:19. | :07:26. | |
surgery is % per year. There is concerns from some about where this | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
figure has come from. There is no hard evidence that 400 cases | :07:30. | :07:38. | |
produces better outcomes, no hard evidence. And therefore, you know, | :07:38. | :07:45. | |
that is the fact. That is how it stands. The NHS review says that | :07:45. | :07:51. | |
Leeds carried out 316 operations in 2010, so it short of the magic | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
number of 400. This is the reports commissioned by the review team to | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
look at all available it is sure to see if there is any evidence to | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
support a minimum number of operations. It could not find one. | :08:04. | :08:07. | |
It could find some correlation between volume and outcome, but it | :08:07. | :08:13. | |
could not provide a cut-off point. We decided to speak to the US based | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
author of three of the seven report considered by the review. Dr Wilkie | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
is a paediatric surgeon based in Seattle. From your research, where | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
can you draw the line and say, this is the minimum number of cases that | :08:28. | :08:35. | |
a surgical centre should be dealing with? It is more complex than a cut | :08:35. | :08:40. | |
and dried line. In the United States, we know there are centres | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
that are relatively low behind who are -- lower than the line that a | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
performing well and vice versa. If one has to make a decision, and one | :08:49. | :08:55. | |
wants to base it on the data which is in existence, the number of 350 | :08:55. | :09:01. | |
cases per year for a centre which wants to be adept in all areas of | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
congenital heart surgery is reasonable. I cannot say that a | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
number slightly above or below that is also reasonable. But based on | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
what we have found, that is a reasonable under. -- reasonable | :09:12. | :09:18. | |
number. Why is this figure important? If it was lower, | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
arguably more Donitz might remain viable under the proposals. -- more | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
units might remain viable. This is not the first time the NHS has look | :09:27. | :09:35. | |
at setting a minimum figure. Back in 2003, the NHS proposed three | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
surgeons and 300 procedures per centre, but that was rejected by | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
the then Health Minister. figure that was put to me of 300 | :09:42. | :09:47. | |
cases and three surgeons in each centre had no evidence behind it. | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
There was no body of data that could show me that that was | :09:50. | :09:56. | |
actually going to be more safe than the arrangements we already had in | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
place. Without hard evidence, was there any way that you as a | :10:00. | :10:06. | |
minister could have gone ahead with those proposals? Absolutely not. If | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
one had gone ahead with these recommendations, and there would | :10:10. | :10:17. | |
have been no question, an awful lot of hostility to them with local -- | :10:17. | :10:20. | |
there was an awful lot of hostility to them in the local area and you | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
can only stand up to hostility with evidence, it you can look people in | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
the eye and say, I am doing this because it will be better for you | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
and your children in the long term. Professor Sir Roger Boyle | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
represents the team carrying out the review into children's hot | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
services. He says the figure of 400 is based on expert aperient -- | :10:40. | :10:47. | |
opinion. The basis is having enough work to keep the surgeon's skill | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
and have enough surgeons working together to have a proper training | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
environment, and the ability for surgeons to do the difficult cases | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
together. The problem is, it you are asking people to make big | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
changes, you would like it to be based on some kind of body of | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
evidence. We will never get the evidence, because of the small | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
number of procedures and that comes down to simple mathematics and | :11:11. | :11:18. | |
statistics. Slightly further down. Just have a look. The first stage | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
of the review into children's heart surgery was to assess each of the | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
11 centres against a set of newly developed clinical standards. A | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
hospitals were visited by a panel of experts which scored them | :11:30. | :11:35. | |
against such things as quality of care and leadership. There was a | :11:35. | :11:40. | |
group of people from various aspect of the health care, who came around | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
and presentations were given and questions asked, and they went away | :11:44. | :11:49. | |
and came up with a score. hospitals were scored and then a | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
rank into a league table. But there has been concerns about how these | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
schools were worked out. The NHS review team has release the details | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
of where the centres met on the standards, but they have not | :12:02. | :12:07. | |
released the breakdown of the schools. We cannot analyse the | :12:07. | :12:13. | |
score, on the basis, that is all we know, and number. We cannot really | :12:13. | :12:23. | |
:12:23. | :12:25. | ||
do anything with that. And we are We requested a breakdown of the | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
scores using the freedom of information that, but were rejected | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
on the basis that using what they call provisional scores in the | :12:31. | :12:37. | |
public domain could prejudice the review. We are saying that a | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
further option should be included, which does include Leeds but also | :12:42. | :12:48. | |
actually includes eight centres. This counsellor is the chair of the | :12:48. | :12:50. | |
Health Review and scrutiny committee. -- the Overview and | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
Scrutiny Committee. She believes that transparency has been a major | :12:53. | :13:00. | |
issue. For the fact that neither the hospitals nor the statutory | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
bodies to scrutinise this process, in theory, get to see the breakdown | :13:05. | :13:11. | |
of scores, it is unacceptable. Complete the unacceptable, because | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
there cannot be any real confidence in the scoring without public | :13:16. | :13:22. | |
scrutiny. The scoring has had an effect. And the scoring has been | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
brought into play, into the recommendations. There is no doubt | :13:27. | :13:32. | |
that, from the point of view of this review, and people's | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
perceptions, the scoring has been important and this centre has been | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
disadvantaged. There has also been concern over the accuracy of the | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
scoring. In Leeds, one example is where it says that there is not a | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
dedicated transition nurse to help children to adult services. But the | :13:51. | :13:57. | |
true say that is not correct and that one does exist. We are very | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
keenly aware of the factual accuracy is about the hospital have | :14:01. | :14:06. | |
told us exist. -- factual inaccuracies. We have not been able | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
to corroborate that those factual inequities have been corroborated | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
anywhere. -- have been addressed. There is so much emphasis placed on | :14:14. | :14:19. | |
one set of data, and we could not get access to it. Why has the | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
breakdown of those scores not been released? I do not know. They will | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
be released, but the joint committee primary care trusts have | :14:27. | :14:33. | |
not seen that breakdown. The review team also say suggestions of | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
factual inaccuracies are without merit, and there is no need to | :14:37. | :14:42. | |
readers of the score for Leeds. This created a league table that | :14:42. | :14:46. | |
was put in the consultation document - a very influential for | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
the members of public who see it. Surely that should be open to some | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
scrutiny of how those scores were given. It will be put into the | :14:55. | :15:00. | |
public domain once the committee have considered that level of | :15:00. | :15:05. | |
detail. Will that not be too late? I think it is only one factor that | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
is being considered here, but it is an important one because it is a | :15:10. | :15:16. | |
measure of quality that goes beyond just looking at survival rates. | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
When children have a congenital heart disorder, it is likely they | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
may have more than one thing wrong with them. In these circumstances, | :15:22. | :15:26. | |
it is important that they have ready access to other medical care. | :15:26. | :15:35. | |
This is called Coke location. Children with heart problems have | :15:35. | :15:41. | |
complicated problems, so it is rare they have a hard problem that is | :15:41. | :15:44. | |
isolated. If the additional problems become an issue, it is | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
very, very important they have access to experts in that area to | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
advise you and help get the best outcome for the patient. But there | :15:52. | :15:58. | |
has been disagreement over how double location has been defined | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
for this review. We have been told that 10 years ago, they did not | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
even treat children like Lyle. Cookward is two years old and was | :16:08. | :16:13. | |
born with multiple complications to his heart and lungs. He has had 11 | :16:13. | :16:16. | |
operations to date and while he is much stronger now, in the early | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
days things were critical. He was so, so poorly about. That had he | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
been in a hospital but did not have those facilities on site, he would | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
not have been well enough to move to have those procedures done. The | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
fact that he was going down a corridor to theatre, not being | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
transferred across the city, meant those procedures could happen. They | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
were having surgical meetings where they could bring in teams of | :16:40. | :16:44. | |
surgical professionals - not just cardiac experts, and they could all | :16:44. | :16:50. | |
have a discussion about what was going on. Lyle is a perfect example | :16:50. | :16:56. | |
of that stubble location. All services under one roof. -- double | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
location. The problems that were not related to his heart that he | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
had, we could get the doctors at short notice around the clock, and | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
that is a model for the future. public consultation document | :17:09. | :17:12. | |
identifies 26 services which require mandatory double location. | :17:12. | :17:16. | |
Five of them are absolutely critical for children's heart | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
surgery. When they say double location, what exactly do they | :17:20. | :17:25. | |
mean? For the purposes of this review, they are using a definition | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
from 2008. It says that services should be housed on the same | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
hospital site, or in a neighbouring hospital as a on the same site. So, | :17:34. | :17:38. | |
a hospital such as Leeds General Infirmary, which has all the | :17:38. | :17:43. | |
services under one roof comes under this category. But in Newcastle, | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
where they are spread across several hospital sites, it also | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
meets the criteria. The problem with this interpretation is that | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
the man who wrote the definition has raised questions about how it | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
has been applied. In a letter to the paediatric intensive care | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
Society, published on the safe and sustainable website, he said it | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
would not apply to services being available in the same city. It does | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
not equate to a visiting surgical team being a nominal 50 minutes | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
across town. John Thomson represents the British Congenital | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
Cardiac Association, the largest professional group for patients | :18:19. | :18:27. | |
with the devil heart disease. -- congenital heart disease. | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
believe that it means having their services available under one roof, | :18:31. | :18:37. | |
ideally, to provide input to those patients when they are needed. The | :18:37. | :18:44. | |
S&S definition has been a little bit more loose and defines it as | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
being not necessarily on one side, so potentially in a different | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
hospital. Potentially on the other side of a large city. That concerns | :18:52. | :18:53. | |
British Congenital Cardiac Association because we believe that | :18:54. | :19:00. | |
it is so important for the outcomes of these patients do. The NHS | :19:00. | :19:02. | |
review teams mean the definition they have applied does meet the | :19:03. | :19:09. | |
criteria. Buildings never saved anyone's life. It is the conditions | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
that are important and the bash at the conditions that are important | :19:15. | :19:20. | |
and the relationships between the clinicians. Knowing who is | :19:20. | :19:25. | |
responsible for what, so that they can get into complex situations. | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
you are happy that if the services in the future are said across | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
different sides in the City, that is OK? As long as they are | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
relatively adjacent and you don't have to queue in traffic for half | :19:36. | :19:40. | |
an hour to get across. The plans to reconfigure children's heart | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
services will almost certainly affect some people more than others. | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
The majority of patients will only ever need surgery once but for | :19:46. | :19:53. | |
others, it can be a lifelong relationship. | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
She was discharged from hospital when she was born as normal, but | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
three weeks later she started having some seizures. When we took | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
her into hospital, that is when they did the analysis and we went | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
to the Leeds General Infirmary and found out she had a hard concision | :20:08. | :20:14. | |
-- condition. So our Hussain is six years old and has problems with a | :20:14. | :20:23. | |
heart from birth. -- Sara. He it news to Newcastle, that is two | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
hours away for us and it would pretty much mean that one parent | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
would be with Sara and the other would be with the other children. I | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
think it will be a nightmare. It will be a nightmare for us, | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
tracking backwards and forwards, splitting the family up. I don't | :20:38. | :20:43. | |
want to think about it, to be honest. It is already a stressful | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
time anyway and this just adds to the stress. The Hussains' fears are | :20:49. | :20:54. | |
well-founded. A health impact assessment has clearly identified | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
that if the surgical centre in Leeds closes, the highest number of | :20:58. | :21:03. | |
people will suffer increased travel times. But here is the problem - | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
some people claim the health impact assessment has been carried out too | :21:06. | :21:11. | |
late. The precise details of how troubled times might increase for | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
people from Yorkshire and the Humber was not available before the | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
public consultation came to an end. You would expect a HIA to be | :21:19. | :21:26. | |
carried out properly before the consultation begins, not to be | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
completed after everybody - including the Overview and Scrutiny | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
Committee - have had a chance to have a say in the process. There is | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
no statutory obligation for a health impact assessment, but if | :21:36. | :21:42. | |
one is carried out the NHS guidelines only required to be | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
carried out in sufficient time for the findings to be factored in. If | :21:45. | :21:49. | |
you are going to carry out a health impact assessment, wouldn't it be | :21:49. | :21:58. | |
better to have it at a more advanced age -- advanced stage. | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
we need to make sure it is part of the process but not one that | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
preamps what you finally decide. So that when you actually come to the | :22:06. | :22:11. | |
point of implementation, you have got the issues that have arisen | :22:11. | :22:17. | |
clearly in mind to make sure plans address those issues. But you are | :22:17. | :22:22. | |
happy it should not have been earlier? I am happy, yes. Define a | :22:22. | :22:26. | |
health impact assessment has yet to be published -- the final. | :22:27. | :22:30. | |
Additional work is being carried out on travel patterns. There is | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
concern about how well the health impact assessment has taken account | :22:34. | :22:43. | |
of ethnic minority families, who are twice as likely to have | :22:43. | :22:50. | |
children with congenital heart defects. Muhammad Raja's daughter | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
Palak has a heart condition and he feels the service has not been good | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
enough. Communities have not been taken into any consideration or | :22:59. | :23:05. | |
into any confidence. The S&S review team say they contacted nearly 2000 | :23:05. | :23:09. | |
organisations and a range 20 focus groups across England and Wales, to | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
here specifically from black and minority ethnic groups. But we have | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
spoken to the man who organised three of the five focus groups held | :23:17. | :23:22. | |
in Yorkshire. David Odunukwe from the Leeds BME Network stepped in to | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
help the NHS over fears the sessions they had organised were | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
not accessible for these communities. He feels the NHS | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
should have done more, at an earlier stage. | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
Overall, how well would you say minority groups have been consulted, | :23:37. | :23:44. | |
even including the work by you have carried out? Not very well. We have | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
managed to tick the boxes, so that it is noted in London at the NHS | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
offices, and in Parliament, that consultation has been done with | :23:52. | :23:58. | |
more than two or three groups. When we are able to contact people at a | :23:58. | :24:05. | |
moderate level, at a late stage, we would have been able to transform | :24:05. | :24:13. | |
that site of the relationship. We would have been able to look at he | :24:13. | :24:18. | |
was dealt with and who had a say. In any consultation, you would want | :24:18. | :24:26. | |
everybody to have the opportunity to work in a democratic fashion. So | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
I don't think it was box-ticking - I think it was an issue raised and | :24:31. | :24:37. | |
we responded to it. The review team also point out that nearly 20% of | :24:37. | :24:45. | |
the 75,000 responses to the public consultation came from BME groups. | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
The I want to highlight why and what my concerns are. It is about | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
the review and not just about one sentence. One of those who has been | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
most vocal about the proposed changes to children's heart surgery | :24:56. | :24:59. | |
is Stuart Andrew, the MP for Pudsey, who instigated a backbench debate | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
on the issue. What concerns do you have about the | :25:03. | :25:08. | |
way this review has been carried out? I think that it has not been | :25:08. | :25:13. | |
transparent enough. I think we want a level playing field that | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
recognises that geography is also incredibly important, but that we | :25:18. | :25:21. | |
do have a process that brings about the best children's heart surgery | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
that we can have in this country. Do you accept that there does need | :25:25. | :25:30. | |
to be a changed? Absolutely. I think we'd have to be sure that we | :25:30. | :25:36. | |
have really safe units, but let's not make a mistake in the process. | :25:36. | :25:42. | |
A we are able to close this directly. Just a couple of minutes, | :25:42. | :25:47. | |
probably. For Emily Taylor, the operation to fix the hole in her | :25:47. | :25:51. | |
heart is over. It brings to an end what has been the most testing time | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
of her life so far. Hers is just one story among thousands of | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
children whose lives are changed each year. They are the reason that | :25:59. | :26:05. | |
this review is being so keenly watched. I want to see real | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
evidence that they have really considered another option, that can | :26:09. | :26:15. | |
potentially help us keep it in Leeds. If we lose it, I think it | :26:15. | :26:18. | |
will be a serious blow for many patients that are going to needed. | :26:18. | :26:23. | |
I have had people banging on my door every month, asking why we | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
haven't sorted out children's heart surgery. They say it is ridiculous | :26:26. | :26:30. | |
to have this large number of centres to bring such a small | :26:30. | :26:35. | |
number of procedures. Shame on you for not doing something about it | :26:35. | :26:39. | |
before now, they say. They best outcome is that this centre stays | :26:39. | :26:44. | |
open. I am absolutely clear about that. It not for me personally, | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
because in the future, I won't be here. But for the community of | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
Yorkshire and Humber, I think it is absolutely important that this unit | :26:54. | :26:59. | |
stays open. It has been three weeks since Emily came out of hospital, | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
and she is feeling much better. was really very happy when Maya | :27:04. | :27:13. | |
operation was done. -- my operation. I could go home and have more fun. | :27:13. | :27:16. | |
She went from intensive care to a high dependency unit. She was there | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
for one night and after that she went into the ward, and she was in | :27:21. | :27:26. | |
the ward for a couple of days. Because she did so well and | :27:26. | :27:32. | |
recovered so quickly, they sent us home. You feel fantastic. From the | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
emotions you have gone through before, it is just wonderful to | :27:35. | :27:39. | |
think that it was found and that she has been treated. Now we can | :27:39. | :27:44. | |
just get on with everything and not worry about it anymore. And get on | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
with our lives will stop the review into children's heart services has | :27:48. | :27:52. | |
been one of the biggest ever carried out by the NHS. The review | :27:52. | :27:56. | |
team say no decisions have yet been made, and the results should be | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
announced before the end of the year. I will be a bit more stronger | :28:01. | :28:08. | |
when I get older and don't be poorly. And then I will get a | :28:08. | :28:12. | |
really, really happy when I am older because it is all over and | :28:12. | :28:22. | |
:28:22. | :28:24. | ||
done with. I can do anything now. I If you want to contact us about | :28:24. | :28:31. | |
tonight's story, you can do so on Facebook or Twitter. That's it from | :28:31. | :28:36. | |
us in Leeds. Make sure you joined us for next week's programme. | :28:36. | :28:42. |