Written question asked by Baroness Masham of Ilton (Crossbench), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Earl Howe (Conservative) on Tuesday, 10 May 2011.

Health: Paediatric Cardiology

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what emphasis has been placed on the co-location of paediatric services in consideration of the location of children's heart surgery units in England.

Answer: The review of children's heart surgery units, the Safe and Sustainable review, is being conducted by the NHS Specialised Commissioning Team. We have however been following its progress. The service standards developed by the Safe and Sustainable Steering Group, against which current services have been assessed and are proposed as designation standards for future services, include 30 standards (out of a total of 156) relating to the co-location of other paediatric services and a further two on services for adolescents. Eight criteria were used to score current centres for the assessment and these include one on interdependent services (or co-location). This criterion was ranked four and carried a maximum score of 70 out of 685. This process is set out in the pre-consultation business case, pages 50 to 56. The scoring of centres fed into a wider evaluation of the options for future services. The criteria against which the options for future services were evaluated included the consideration that ““the negative impact for the provision of paediatric intensive care and other interdependent services is kept to a minimum””. This was part of the deliverability criterion, which was weighted 22 out of 100. This is set out in the pre-consultation business case on page 65 and is available at: www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/library/ 30/Safe_and_Sustainable_Review_of_Childrens_ Congenital_Cardiac_Services_in_England_Pre_ Consultation_Business_Case_l.pdf.

Secondary information