Oral Hearings Reach Half Way Stage
The Oral Hearings of the Inquiry were adjourned on 22
July 1999 for a summer recess, having reached the half way stage. There
have been 4 months of hearings so far and there are another 4 months scheduled
for the Autumn.
The Inquiry has heard from 220 witnesses of whom 59 have
also given evidence orally. Of those 220 witness statements, over 90 have
been received from parents with another 140 expected before the end of
the Autumn session. Evidence scanned into the Inquiry’s computer
database (including medical records of around 1800 children) consists
of a little under 800,000 pages.
Autumn Schedule
The Inquiry intends to resume oral hearings in Bristol
in the week commencing September 6. Detailed scheduling of witnesses is
being undertaken by the Inquiry’s legal team at present and it is
not possible at this time to give a detailed timetable, person by person,
day by day for September onwards. However, we can confirm that in the
autumn we will explore the issues of tissue retention, counselling for
parents and views about the split site.
Later in the autumn, the Panel will be hearing from a
wide range of witnesses about adequacy of care and the expression of concerns.
The issues which arise in respect of statistics and the results of the
clinical case note review exercise will be examined in depth.
The Oral Hearings are scheduled to close in the week
before Christmas. The Inquiry will then move on to Phase II, with the
closing submissions for Phase One being heard during February 2000.
Phase two issues
published for consultation
At the end of July the Inquiry team issued for consultation
the main themes for its second phase which is scheduled to start early
in the year 2000.
Phase Two of the Inquiry will look at relevant wider
issues and the Inquiry Panel intend to take a national perspective, informed
by their learning from Phase One - the examination of children’s
heart surgical services at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Children’s
Hospital, which is currently underway.
During the second phase, the Inquiry panel focus will
be on examining current and potential future policy initiatives which
could help to improve the quality of care in the NHS.
There will be written papers commissioned from a wide
range of organisations and individuals. The papers will be published and
they will be supplemented by a series of eight to ten public seminars
between January and April 2000.
Seven themes have currently been identified for Phase
Two. They are:
- children in the NHS;
- aiming for quality in the NHS;
- managing performance in the NHS;
- culture of healthcare;
- regulation and accountability in the NHS;
- education and training within the NHS; and
- information systems in healthcare.
The BRI Inquiry team has issued a consultation paper
seeking comments on the suggested themes; possible seminar topics within
the themes; and the organisations or individuals who might be invited
to contribute papers on specific issues. The paper is published on the
Inquiry’s website under "Issues List".
The objectives of Phase Two are to assist the Inquiry
Panel to meet the requirement in their Terms of Reference to "make
recommendations which could help to secure high quality care across the
NHS"; and to ensure that recommendations are relevant to the
NHS of the future, practical, achievable and within a realistic level
of resources.
The approach will be wide-ranging and, where it can assist
the Inquiry, papers and contributions will be invited from outside the
healthcare sector and from individuals and organisations outside the UK.
Comments are invited by September 3 and should be made
in writing or by e-mail to Una O’Brien, Secretary, Bristol Royal
Infirmary Inquiry, 2-10 Temple Way, Bristol, BS2 0BY. The e-mail address
is inquiry@doh.gov.uk.
STOP! PRESS!
From September onwards every Saturday, main local newspapers
will carry information about the next week’s witness programme. The
Inquiry is seeking to ensure that as many people as possible are aware
in advance of the timetable for the Oral Hearings and of the witnesses
being heard. Notices will be appearing in, initially three, newspapers
which cover South Wales and the South West, printing the following week’s
witness schedule on a Saturday. The newspapers are the Western Morning
News, the Western Daily Press and the Western Mail.
1/4 Million
hits on the Inquiry Website
The last week of oral hearings before the summer recess in July saw the
number of visitors from over 50 countries around to the Inquiry website
reach ¼ million. There has been mounting interest in the website since
its launch in October last year, with a significant increase in the number
of hits following the start of the oral hearings in March. The busiest
day so far was March 17, the day after the hearings began in Bristol and
the busiest month was July. If you haven’t visited the Inquiry website
yet, here is the address:
www.bristol-inquiry.org.uk/
Don’t forget, the transcripts from each day of the oral hearings
are published on the Inquiry website each evening.
Cases to be
reviewed by Inquiry
The Inquiry team announced at the beginning of August
its proposals to review a sample of cases taken from over 1,800 children
and babies who received either open or closed heart surgery over a 12-year
period.
It is the first time that a sample of cases, drawn from
virtually all the paediatric cardiac activity at the Bristol Royal Infirmary
and Bristol Children’s Hospital between 1984 and 1995, has been so
thoroughly reviewed.
The case review will be one of a number of sources of
evidence on the adequacy of care to be put before the Inquiry.
The clinicians on the Inquiry’s Expert Group have
been formed into review teams which consist of five members:
- paediatric cardiac surgeon;
- paediatric cardiologist;
- paediatric anaesthetist/intensivist;
- paediatric pathologist; and
- paediatric nurse or intensive care nurse.
The sample, initially, of 80 sets of case notes will
be an important contribution to the Inquiry’s understanding of the
adequacy of the services at the BRI and Children’s Hospital. The
Inquiry is making extensive efforts to contact all families of children
whose cases are included in the sample to ask for their views and comments
and has said that no personally identifiable information about any individual
will be made public without a family’s prior permission. Further
review work may be considered if necessary.
Review teams will look at the adequacy of key aspects
of pre-operative, surgical and post-operative care, as well as the adequacy
of care overall. The report forms from the exercise will form the basis
of a single review summary which will be presented to the Inquiry panel
during the autumn hearings.
Every single case of child heart surgery during the period
1984-1995 will be taken into consideration in selecting the sample. Selection
will be at random from the total of more than 1,800 cases. Every single
child’s case will be taken into account in the overall statistical
analysis of activity and performance.
This review exercise will supplement a wide range of
sources for assessing the adequacy of the services provided. The Inquiry
continues to take written and oral evidence on individual children’s
cases – over 90 family statements have been received and another
140 or more are expected.
The Inquiry will also be taking evidence from its Expert
Group, examining six key data sources and commissioning external review
work.
The Inquiry team has published for comment a document
setting out an explanation of its work to review the clinical case notes.
The document is available on the Inquiry internet website (Inquiry Procedures)
and copies can be requested from the Bristol office.
If you have any queries about the information published in ‘Inquiry
News’ please contact Becky Jarvis, Media Relations Manager, BRI Inquiry,
2-10 Temple Way, Bristol BS2 0BY tel: 01179 938 8716.
Contacting the Inquiry...
If you want general information about the Inquiry please call either
Becky Jarvis, Media Relations Manager on 0117 938 8716 or Rachel Gibbons,
Communications Officer on 0117 938 8711.
There is also a contact number if you wish to speak to someone from the
legal team. Please call Lisa Biddlecombe on 0117 938 8737.
If you wish to contact the Secretary to the Inquiry please call 0117
938 8715.
The Inquiry fax numbers are:
0117 938 8790 Legal Offices
or
0117 938 8789 Secretariat and Communications Team.
CONTACT US IN CONFIDENCE
DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TO THE INQUIRY?
ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT COMING FORWARD?
YOU CAN CONTACT THE INQUIRY SOLICITOR, PETER WHITEHURST IN CONFIDENCE
BY WRITING TO OUR FREEPOST ADDRESS OPPOSITE.
Internet Website:
www.Bristol-Inquiry.org.uk/
E-mail: inquiry@doh.gov.uk
Telephone: 0845 3000 613
(calls charged at local rate)
Fax: 0171 972 4602
FREEPOST ADDRESS:
Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry
Freepost, (SWB1115), Bristol, BS2 OZZ
No stamp is required.
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