General Chat

Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS, is facing calls to resign following the suspension of children's congenital heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary, a day after the High Court quashed plans to close the unit.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9961142/NHS-head-facing-calls-to-resign-over-disturbing-closure-of-childrens-heart-unit.html

and to think
they were going to close Freemans in Newcastle
who will now be taking the Leeds hospitals heart ops :-( :-(

Coincidence that the Medical Director of the NHS acted the day after he lost the court case. If there were problems, why had they not been acted on before, I cannot believe the problems just appeared overnight :-|

Coincidence also that the Medical Director of the NHS decided to disappear off abroad very quickly after he made the decision :-|

Coincidence that the decision conveniently coincides with a Bank Holiday and while the House of Commons is in recess. That means that the Secretary of State for Health cannot be summoned to the House of Commons to explain, in his usual shambolic manner, the reasons for the decision :-|

To many coincidences in my opinion :-|:-|:-|

Yes, good thread this one. I thought it was extremely fishy the moment they announced it.

Often happens, but not quite as obviously blatant coincidence as this one. We should not be moving people with heart conditions (particularly the old and young) these huge distances for surgery. Most of the consultants have vehicles or access to public transport.

But the NHS is about consultants and management, and is not concentrated on customer care (can be more cynical than you, OFG)

Newcastle would be delighted if Freeman's children's heart unit was kept open BUT even more pleased if Leeds could also as it is a situation that no-one should have to choose over another.

i think they should both be kept open to
but Freemans must get a better cook in their canteen
the food is older than noah
by far the worst i have tried to eat :-( :-(

oh now I think the food's good Joy ...must have been good cook's holiday when you were there ;-)

To add to the coincidences surrounding the Medical Director of the NHS's decision, it is now being reported that the accuracy of the mortality figures is being questioned and the release of the data has concerned the head of the group which is still analysing the figures.

Dr John Gibbs, the chairman of Central Cardiac Database, which supplied the figures, described them as work in progress. He also said they have not even got the data statistically analysed yet, and he suggested it rings of politics rather than proper process :-|

Someone in this sorry saga is being economical with the truth, do they not realise it is children's lives that are at stake here :-|

Cardiologist Elspeth Brown said the data did not include all the operations, and that staff were confident in their clinical work.

Ms Brown told the BBC that, since the announcement, she and colleagues had been examining the data that was used to make the decision.

She said "We do now know that the figures that were presented were simply wrong, they were incomplete, did not include all the operations in Leeds, and that they had then been subject to some statistical analysis which generated this headline figure. We need people to stop attacking us, and we need to resume surgery as soon as possible."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21981778

Children's heart surgery is set to resume at Leeds General Infirmary within days, a week after concerns were raised about death rates at the unit.

So what happened to bring about this U-Turn :-S

Hoisted by their own petarde, this time. About time these politicos started telling the truth instead of thinking we are all a bit dull.

Would we really think they were that bad if, just occasionally, they levelled with us about these decisions. Hope someone high up apologises to staff at Leeds.