Safe and Sustainable review:

Better outcomes for children with congenital heart disease

Safe and Sustainable has launched a public consultation on the future of children’s congenital heart services. The Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) - the decision making body that represents all PCTs in England - met on 16 February 2011 and approved recommendations for public consultation.

The public consultation

The NHS would like views from the public about the proposed changes including the people most affected: parents, young people and NHS staff. The public consultation runs until 1 July 2011.

For further information on the public consultation please visit www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/safeandsustainable

We are consulting on the following key areas

• Standards of care: proposed national quality standards of care to be applied consistently across the country

• Congenital heart networks: development of networks to coordinate care and ensure more local provision (e.g.assessment, ongoing care)

• Options for fewer surgical centres: to improve outcomes for children’s heart surgery in the future

• Better Monitoring: improvements for analysis and reporting of mortality and morbidity data