6 June 2011
World-renowned surgeon, Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, has come out in support of the fight against the proposed closure of children’s cardiac surgery services at Royal Brompton Hospital.
Professor Yacoub, who was the first person in the UK to perform a double heart and lung transplant, said: “It is my firm belief that centres of excellence such as the paediatric unit at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust are irreplaceable and, therefore, should be preserved for the benefit of the community, both nationally and internationally.”
A Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) released recommendations in February, including proposals to discontinue children’s heart surgery at Royal Brompton. This was despite a report which rated the hospital highly in a national assessment of centres and despite the hospital’s aggregate mortality rate being lower than the national average (two per cent) at only 0.94 per cent for congenital interventions and surgery. Royal Brompton has the required number of surgeons, four, undertaking the necessary level of procedures, more than four hundred, identified during the review.
Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub has saved the lives of countless children born with a congenital heart defect where the heart vessels are the wrong way around through pioneering a switching technique. He is the founder and president of the Chain of Hope charity, treating children with correctable cardiac conditions from war-torn and developing countries and establishing training and research programmes in local cardiac units.
As professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and director of research at Harefield Heart Science Centre, he has paid tribute to Royal Brompton’s international reputation saying: “I have had the distinct privilege of working at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust for over 30 years. I have witnessed first hand the extreme dedication of the staff and the quality of the service to children, adolescents and adults. This has evolved over many years to reach such a level of excellence which I feel, must continue and project into the future.
The professor is one of a number of well-known clinicians and supporters who have recently made statements in support of the hospital’s campaign to save its children’s services. Sir Christopher Edwards, chairman of Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, added his voice on behalf of patients in west London: "Chelsea and Westminster has close links with Royal Brompton Hospital and has concerns that the closure of paediatric cardiac surgery would have much wider consequences not only for other services at the Royal Brompton but also for other hospitals such as ourselves – and so for the care of sick children in West London."
Read other supporting statements here
With less than a month to go before the end of the public consultation on 1 July, supporters are being urged to have their say on the future of children’s heart surgery.
