NHS England has announced that the deadline for responding to the public consultation on plans to decommission the congenital heart disease (CHD) service at Royal Brompton has been postponed until 17 July 2017.
This delay has been enforced following the recent announcement of a general election on 8 June, and is necessary in order to comply with regulations limiting what publicly-funded bodies (such as the Trust and NHS England) can say in the run-up to a general election. People are still able to submit responses to the public consultation during this period.
NHS England has yet to comment on how this delay will impact on the date for a final decision on the plans – the Trust will update patients as soon as any announcement has been made.
The enforcement of the pre-election regulations means that other planned activity relating to the CHD plans – including a patient consultation event with NHS England on 6 May will also now be postponed until after the general election.
Many Royal Brompton supporters are now using the opportunity provided by the general election to contact the leading candidates standing for election in their area, to seek their support for the campaign, even if they have already written to their MP about the issue. The Brompton Fountain charity, whose work as an independent charity does not fall under pre-election regulations, have published easy-to-follow advice for anyone wishing to write to their local candidates.