The new Congenital Heart Disease review: 25th update – John Holden

Your feedback From time to time we are challenged as to whether the review has a pre-determined outcome. Some think we have already decided that one or more units have to close, and that we know which ones. Others think that we have already decided that no units will close, come what may. The truth is that nothing is decided yet, but I do understand that in the absence of a simple clear cut decision, everyone will have a view. I recently exchanged correspondence with a national charity on this point and I enclose the exchange here so you can see how I have replied. Another comment that we have heard recently is: this is all taking too long. I have some sympathy with this view and I would love to accelerate the work of the review, because “limbo” is damaging. But I also know that short cuts in the process will damage the credibility of our conclusions, and leave us wide open to challenge in the courts and elsewhere. We have to follow the process that NHS England has prescribed for the development of service specifications, even where this seems unusually difficult given the wide range and sensitive nature of our review. And we are trying, I hope successfully, to be as open and inclusive as possible. With this in mind I wanted to draw your attention to the papers for our Programme Board on 10 June 2014 (see link below). Item 5 on the agenda (“Timeline update”) explains that we will not now begin consultation at the end of July 2014 as we had hoped. Instead we are now t...
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