Children needing heart surgery will continue to be sent to Melbourne
An independent review has recommended SA children needing heart surgery continue to be sent to Melbourne, but the Women’s and Children’s Hospital will set up a new service to take care of them while they wait.
SA News
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Children needing heart surgery will continue to be sent to Melbourne but the Women’s and Children’s Hospital will establish a new oxygen therapy service to help them while waiting for an operation.
An independent review into paediatric cardiac surgery services at the WCH has recommended that children needing cardiac surgery should continue to be referred to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.
It also recommended an extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) service be set up, to support oxygenation of the lungs when patients are sick with cardiac or respiratory problems.
The review followed a push by hospital clinicians and administrators to re-establish “an enhanced cardiothoracic surgery service” outlined in a business case in July last year.
Open-heart surgery ended at the WCH in 2002 and, since then, “only a very small number of lower complexity closed cases have been performed annually by one cardiac surgeon”, the review notes.
In recent years, between 80-120 South Australian children annually have been transferred to Melbourne for surgery. “The demand for paediatric cardiac surgery is not expected to grow significantly in SA, and by 2031 it is expected that the need for surgery for SA children will still be around 110 cases per annum,” the review states, noting the number might be closer to 70 cases because some families would go to Melbourne regardless of a local service.
“Australian Standards indicate the volume of cases an individual surgeon performs should exceed 100 cases annually,” it say. “International studies suggest any facility should conduct a minimum of 200-300 cases of paediatric cardiac surgery to ensure high quality.” The report says options including a fly-in, fly-out surgeon would mean less inconvenience for families but the low volume of local cases “was of concern from a safety and quality perspective”.
“For the foreseeable future, any service located within South Australia would be below the recommended minimum number of annual surgical volume for an individual ‘in house’ paediatric cardiac surgeon at WCHN and well below facility thresholds,” it says. “The risks associated with the establishment of a designated service at WCHN cannot be adequately mitigated.”
The review panel included senior cardiac surgeons and cardiologists from around the country. Women’s and Children’s Health Network chief executive Lindsey Gough welcomed the report, saying “the safety and quality of the services we provide is always our No 1 our priority” and they would now work with clinicians to develop a service proposal for the use of ECMO.