Require two paediatric surgeons performing 40-50 open-heart operations annually for infants

BRIS-195 Response Historic

Require two paediatric surgeons performing 40-50 open-heart operations annually for infants

Recommendation

With regard to the very particular circumstances of open-heart surgery on very young children (including neo-nates and infants), we stipulate that the following standard should apply unless, within six months of the publication of this Report, this standard is varied by the DoH having taken the advice of relevant experts: there must, in any unit providing open-heart surgery on very young children, be two surgeons trained in paediatric surgery who must each undertake between 40 and 50 open-heart operations a year.

Published Evidence Summary

The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:

- The 2015 NHS England Congenital Heart Disease Standards require that each surgical centre employs a minimum of four consultant congenital heart surgeons to ensure safe staffing levels (NHS England, CHD Standards, 2015, https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/spec-services/npc-crg/group-e/e05/). - A Written Parliamentary Question response in June 2023 stated that NHS England monitors compliance with these standards (PQ 190234, 21 June 2023, https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-06-14/190234). - No further published evidence has been identified since 2023.

How was this assessed?

Assessed by gemini-3-flash-preview on 24 Mar 2026

Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)

External sources searched: www.gov.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk, hansard.parliament.uk

Jurisdiction

UK-wide