Final Report > Chapter 16: The Organisation of the Paediatric Cardiac Surgical Service in Bristol > The patient's journey

The patient's journey

1 In this section we comment on aspects of the organisation of the paediatric cardiac surgical (PCS) services in Bristol which in our view affected the adequacy of the care provided to children and their families. As throughout, we concern ourselves with open-heart surgery. We describe first the physical environment and the UBH/T. We then follow the family's journey through the process of care from their first contact with the PCS services. We offer our conclusions as they arise.

Figure 1: The typical journey through the BRHSC/BRI of a child undergoing open-heart surgery