The Bristol heart scandal occurred in

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during the 1990s. At the

Bristol Royal Infirmary The Bristol Royal Infirmary, also known as the BRI, is a large teaching hospital situated in the centre of Bristol, England. It has links with the nearby University of Bristol and the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of the Wes ...

, babies died at high rates after cardiac surgery. An inquiry found "staff shortages, a lack of leadership, ... unit ... 'simply not up to the task' ... 'an old boy's culture' among doctors, a lax approach to safety, secrecy about doctors' performance and a lack of monitoring by management".Rebecca Smith (29 July 2010)
Bristol heart scandal
''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

''. Accessed 28 August 2011. The scandal resulted in cardiac surgeons leading efforts to publish more data on the performance of doctors and hospitals. Dr Stephen Bolsin, joined the BRI team in 1988 and noticed high surgical mortality rates. As early as 1991, Bolsin raised concerns with high-ranking individuals at the trust and also contacted the

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, the

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, and the

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. Bolsin was largely ignored until 1995, when Joshua Loveday died during a complex heart operation performed by Dr Janardan Dhasmana. After the death of Loveday, Bolsin emigrated to Australia. There he was praised for raising issues about the mortality rates at BRI and was promoted to professor. Subsequently, he was awarded the

Royal College of Anaesthetists The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) is the professional body responsible for the specialty of anaesthesia throughout the United Kingdom. It sets standards in anaesthesia, critical care, pain management, and for the training of anaestheti ...

Frederic Hewitt Medal in 2013 in recognition of his contribution to patient safety. An investigation chaired by Professor Ian Kennedy QC was set up in 1998. It reported in 2001, concluding that paediatric cardiac surgery services at Bristol were "simply not up to the task", because of shortages of key surgeons and nurses, and a lack of leadership, accountability, and teamwork. In five years (19911995), 34 children under one year of age died in this unit, who are believed would have survived in other NHS units (Ref ). Overall 170 children died in the Bristol unit between 19861995, who would have survived in other NHS hospitals, as estimated by Laurence Vick, the lawyer most closely involved in the Bristol Scandal. The same expert estimates that 2530 children suffered permanent brain damage after cardiac surgery by the Bristol surgeons over the same 10 year time span. The

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published a year earlier, included the establishment of the

Commission for Health Improvement The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) was a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department of Health of the United Kingdom from 2001 until 2004, when its functions were subsumed by the Healthcare Commission. CHI was established by ...

, which was intended to tackle such problems. By 2009, the mortality rate within 30 days of a child's heart operation in UK had fallen from 4.3% in 2000 to 2.6%. Plans to reduce the number of centres performing children's heart surgery have been opposed. A report to

NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the ...

in July 2015 proposed a “three tier” model for all hospitals providing congenital heart disease care. It suggested that they would work within “regional, multi-centre networks, bringing together foetal, children’s and adult services” and noted that since 2001 there “have been subsequent reviews each making a series of recommendations, but no coordinated programme of change, and concerns have remained”.

References

External links

Official Inquiry Website (in The UK Government Web Archive)
{{Healthcare in Bristol Public inquiries in the United Kingdom Medical scandals in the United Kingdom 1990s in England Hospital scandals Health disasters in the United Kingdom 1990s in Bristol 1990 in England 1990 disasters in the United Kingdom

See also

References

External links