The National Specialised Commissioning Group is currently leading a number of service development programmes. This section of the specialised services website contains information about these programmes.
Safe and Sustainable Children’s Cardiac Surgery Services Programme
Safe and Sustainable Children’s Neurosurgery Services Programme
Safe and Sustainable Children’s Cardiac Surgery Services Programme
The NHS Management Board has asked the NSCG to examine the way that children’s heart surgery services and interventional cardiology services are provided in England, with a view to reconfiguration. You will find the NHS Medical Director’s letter to the NSCG in this section of the website. The objective of the programme is the delivery of a safe and sustainable service into the future.
There are currently 11 children’s heart surgery centres in England. Approximately 30 surgeons conduct children’s heart operations across the country and between them they carry out around 3800 procedures a year. This number is unlikely to vary significantly in the years to come.
Children’s heart surgery centres in England currently provide a safe and high quality service for children with heart problems. But several current developments mean they will need to evolve if they are to continue to provide a top quality service into the future.
The Safe and Sustainable programme has based its agenda on the following core principles:
- The NHS must provide the very highest standard of care for all children in England who need heart surgery regardless of where they live or which hospital provides their care
- The care that every centre provides must be based around the needs of each child and family, taking account of the transition to adult services
- Other than surgery and interventional cardiology all relevant treatment (including follow-up) must be provided as close as possible to where each family lives
- We will develop a set of quality standards and ensure that services deliver the best care by meeting these standards
The purpose of the Safe and Sustainable programme is to canvas the opinions of all stakeholders, to weigh the evidence for and against different views of service delivery and to develop proposals in 2010 that will deliver sustainable services into the future.
The programme is led by a Steering Group chaired by Dr Patricia Hamilton, Director of Medical Education for England and Immediate Past President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
The recommendations for future service delivery will be developed by local commissioners in consultation with local stakeholders. Four Specialised Commissioning Group collaboratives have been established to lead on the process for delivering recommendations on behalf of all SCGs in their zone. The Steering Group will ensure that the recommendations are consistent with the aims of the Safe and Sustainable programme and which deliver a robust national service that meets the needs of families everywhere in the country.
Key documents relating to the Safe and Sustainable Children’s Cardiac Surgery Services Programme can be accessed below.
Opening the event, the NHS Medical Director, Sir Bruce Keogh, expressed his views on the programme.
Please find a full list of event delegates below
Displaying 1 to 12 of 12 files.
Files: Children’s heart surgery services
General documents
Safe and Sustainable Children’s Neurosurgical Services Review
In 2009, the NHS Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh asked the National Specialised Commissioning Group (NSCG) to conduct a review of children’s neurosurgical services in England.
The aim of the review is to deliver, within two years, robust proposals that will secure a safe, sustainable and world class service for children and their families.
The NSCG has established a Steering Group to lead the review, chaired by Mr Paul Chumas, a consultant paediatric neurosurgeon and former chair of the British Paediatric Neurosurgeons Group. The Steering Group will report regularly to the NSCG.
The Steering Group is supported by a working group, responsible for developing service specification standards for children’s neurosurgery services. This group is chaired by Mr Ian Pople, a consultant paediatric neurosurgeon and member of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons.
Secretariat support for the review is provided by the National Specialised Commissioning Team.
The focus for the Safe and Sustainable Steering Group in 2009 is to:
- review current arrangements for children’s neurosurgical services including levels of need and activity in each of the 15 centres in England
- develop criteria for a formal designation process that ensures that children’s neurosurgical services meet service specification standards, as well as meet national demand
- develop service specification standards that will form a national quality framework within which children’s neurosurgery centres will be assessed
- canvass the views of stakeholders on the future shape of children’s neurosurgical services
The process for developing recommendations for future service configuration will be overseen by the National Specialised Commissioning Group (NSCG). In 2010 the NSCG will consider the outcome of the Steering Group’s initial review, and will ask NHS commissioners to develop recommendations for future service configuration. These recommendations will be worked up in consultation with local stakeholders, and the NSCG will ensure that recommendations are consistent with the overall aims of the Safe and Sustainable programme.
Once the NSCG has considered the recommendations, it will seek views and opinions from all stakeholders via a comprehensive public consultation.
If you would like to attend this event please contact Robin Matheou on 020 7932 9122 or robin.matheou@nsscg.nhs.uk
The event will take place on Monday, 30 November 2009 from 9.30am to 4.30pm at Dexter House, No.2 Royal Mint Court, Tower Hill, London, EC3N 4QN.
Displaying 1 to 12 of 12 files.
Files: Children’s neurosurgery services
General documents