Responding to NHS England’s Board endorsement of a proposal regarding the commissioning of CHD services in England, Bob Bell, chief executive of Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, made the following statement:
“Royal Brompton Hospital has one of the biggest, best and safest congenital heart disease services in the UK and our adult congenital heart disease research programme is widely recognised as the best in the world. Our teams treat children and adults on the same site, providing lifelong care, an approach that our patients value greatly and one that has been replicated around the globe. The provision of co-located multi-specialty care for children is delivered with our colleagues at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
“We welcome the opportunity to continue developing the benefits of a collaboration with King’s Health Partners across cardiac and respiratory medicine and research, which includes our adult and children’s congenital heart disease services.
“This would be a UK first in terms of the scale of the partnership and the clinical, education and research benefits it could provide, rivalling the world’s largest centres and becoming the most advanced cardiovascular and respiratory health system in Europe. We are pleased to have been given the opportunity to shape our own destiny by continuing to explore this collaboration and will do so in a planned and rational way.
“Any relocation of services would take time and would involve consultation with many groups including patients, staff, referrers, commissioners and other key stakeholders.
“For now, our focus remains on continuing to provide the best possible specialist care for patients with heart and lung disease. Our teams will carry on delivering congenital heart disease services – for both adults and children – as they have always done; with immense skill, dedication and an unwavering commitment to putting patients first.
“We await full details of NHS England’s intentions before commenting further.”