NHS England: An appeal against court ruling on the configuration of children’s heart surgery
On 1 April 2013, NHS England inherited responsibility for the Safe and Sustainable Review from the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts.
The review, launched in 2008, was set up to transform children’s heart services to provide better care to patients and improve outcomes.
There is broad consensus – among both clinicians and patient groups – that the NHS needs to concentrate the care of children needing these services into fewer, larger specialist centres, as an integral part of children’s heart networks.
NHS England believes that we must deliver this change as quickly as possible on behalf of children and their families. We now have an opportunity to take stock and assess the best way of achieving our objective in the fastest possible time.
To do this, we need to take account of all the available information, including the recent High Court ruling of 27 March and the report on the issues that is due to be published by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel.
We have been advised that there are good grounds for appeal and these points are set out in an application that has been submitted to the Court of Appeal.
