Professor Frank Casey:

Clinical outcomes are obviously a really important issue and the biggest concern for the parents of the children we treat. We mentioned all of this arose from a situation where there were poor clinical outcomes in Bristol. Paediatric cardiac surgical outcomes are probably one of the most closely monitored outcomes in the world. Within our network, every surgical procedure and every interventional catheter keyhole procedure is reported to a body, the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research, NICOR, which monitors the results right across Ireland and the UK. One of the key elements informing the network was that we had to reassure parents and families they would have a better outcome within the system. As Dr. Oslizlok said, today, our outcomes are comparable with any centre anywhere.

The Senator mentioned 25 years ago. If we look back 25 years, the mortality for children with heart disease was much higher than it is now. When we talk to the families of children with heart disease now, we can tell most of those families there is a greater than 95% chance that their child will come through that operation. Sadly, some still will not, but the one thing we can be confident about is that within the system we are operating now, we have a team that functions very well and is very closely monitored, through governance, etc., at a wider level. That is all validated by external visits to the hospital.