Medical negligence news

Baby heart scandal 'could happen again'

Laurence Vick, Partner at Michelmores, speaks to The Telegraph. Click here further information about Laurence's role as joint lead solicitor for the Bristol Heart Children Action Group. 

This article was first published in The Telegraph on 18 June 2011.

THE Bristol heart scandal could happen again as hospital units are being kept open despite concerns about their safety, according to a leading lawyer.
Laurence Vick, who handled dozens of cases relating to the deaths and serious injuries of babies and children at Bristol Royal Infirmary, said it is unfair to families that several paediatric heart surgery units whose performance is being reviewed are still operating.

He urged the authorities to publish full details of death and injury rates recorded at each centre before parents agree to let their children have surgery there.

Mr Vick also questioned if it was right that MPs should campaign to keep local units open if they could be putting young patients at risk. Leading politicians including Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary; Stephen Dorrell, the chairman of the health select committee; and David Miliband, the former foreign secretary, are trying to stop paediatric heart surgery units in their constituencies being shut as part of an official review.

The solicitor, a partner at Michelmores in Exeter, Devon, said: "I am worried that despite all the checks and balances that were supposed to be in place, another Bristol could still occur.

"There are reports that certain units have been under-performing. If the other units under scrutiny are known to have been producing adverse outcomes over a lengthy period of time - otherwise why would they be earmarked for closure - this is completely unacceptable and grossly unfair to the families who have placed their trust in these units.

"If these reports are correct and the units now under scrutiny continue operating when they know their results are inferior to comparable units then they should call a halt to high-risk procedures at the very least, exactly as Bristol should have done in the early to mid-1990s."

Mr Vick was joint lead solicitor to the 300 members of the Bristol Heart Children Action Group at the public inquiry that finished a decade ago.

It looked into children's heart surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary between 1990 and 1995 where up to 35 children and babies died as a result of poor care. As many as 170 might have survived if they had been treated elsewhere. After the Bristol inquiry it was recommended that paediatric cardiac units perform at least 300 operations a year, and that such surgery be concentrated in a few specialist centres, in order to ensure quality of care.

Last year the NHS Safe and Sustainable review team began assessing the 11 remaining centres in England, while, in a separate review, the unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford was closed after four babies died.

But other threatened units remain open while a public consultation is carried out into which four or five should stop performing surgery. An independent report has claimed that mortality rates have been higher than expected at some of the units under review, but no official figures on deaths or serious injuries have been published.

Mr Vick said: "MPs and doctors don't want to see their local units close. Neither do many of their constituents, but do they really understand the issues involved? Saving lives and giving children with lifethreatening conditions the best possible chance of survival at a centre of excellence must over-ride the desire to have a unit serving the local area."

For further information, please contact Laurence Vick at laurence.vick@michelmores.com or on 01392 688688.

Created: 21/06/2011
Categories: Children's treatment