Welcome to the ECHO website
ECHO’s mission is to provide support for children and young people with heart conditions who receive treatment at the Evelina Children’s Hospital and the outreach clinics at local General Hospitals attended by Evelina Cardiologists. We also extend a lifeline to their family & carers. We are here to provide information, friendship and moral support from infancy to adulthood, especially at times of high anxiety for the patient and/or his or her family/carers as well as to supply equipment to the hospital which will improve the patient/family experience both as an inpatient and at home. Our close working relationship with the hospital enables us to provides vital patient voice to help Guy’s & St Thomas’s NHS Trust shape its services for congenital heart disease.
ECHO Today
COUGHS AND COLDS IN CHILDREN WITH HEART CONDITIONS
Following our request for some written guidance from the hospital, Dr. Aaron Bell, Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist, has written an article which gives comprehensive advice about coughs and colds in children with heart conditions. Please click here.
Autumn Newsletter
Please click here to view our latest newsletter.
ECHO and ETC DVD
ECHO has produced two DVD’s entitled ‘Eddie ECHO’s Heartbeat’ and ‘Echo Teen Club – You ask the questions’ which is available through the ECHO office and is also available to view through this website.
News
Brompton Judicial Review at High Court succeeds in quashing Safe and Sustainable Consultation
It has been announced that a judge at the High Court has declared the Safe and Sustainable Consultation process unlawful following a Judicial Review brought by the Royal Brompton Hospital in a bid to save its Paediatric Cardiac surgical service. However, the Judge rejected most of the grounds on which the RBH based their claim and only found against the JCPCT (the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts – the decision making body) on one point, namely the hospital’s score for “Research and Innovation”. The JCPCT intends to appeal the decision, but today’s announcement will, effectively, delay the process, and that will mean that no final decision will be made in December as had been planned. However, the Committee fully intends to announce a decision by Spring 2012 at the latest. To read the statement made by the Safe and Sustainable team today, please visit their website: http://www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/news/view/76. In the meantime, Professor Shak Qureshi, Head of Service for Paediatric Cardiology at the Evelina said today : “I am pleased that the judge has not found flaws in the principles of the Safe & Sustainable review other than one area (research and innovation) that needs further assessment. Carrying out this further assessment will strengthen the overall review process”.
Work begins on designation of service providers for adults with Congenital Heart Disease: The process to designate future NHS services for adults with congenital heart disease (“GUCH” – Grown Up Congenital Heart Disease, or “ACHD” – Adult Congenital Heart Disease services) in England is underway. The NHS will be working closely with GUCH patients, clinical staff and other relevant stakeholders to develop proposals to consult the public on the future of GUCH services. For more information click here: www.specialisedservices.nhs.uk/news/view/48. We will keep you updated as the work progresses.
Congenital Cardiac Audit Database website
All hospitals which perform surgery and other invasive procedures on children with heart conditions are required to submit data every year for inclusion in a UK-wide database. This database is known as the Congenital Cardiac Audit Database (CCAD), and analysis of this information allows individual hospitals and doctors to compare outcomes which should enable good or poor practice to be identified and appropriate action taken. Please click here to find out more.
Events
