Mr Brimelow,
I am writing to you in the hope that you, or someone in your team, may be able to do some digging in to some seeming inconsistencies and potential compromises and half-truths regarding the Safe and Sustainable Review and the direct review of the Paediatric Cardiology Unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital following the 4 fatalities there.
I was passed your email address by Mark Brayne, with whom I regularly sing, and I have also copied him in this email. He suggested that you might be able to help.
My daughter has had five operations at the JR, and continues to be looked after by Nick Archer, a Paediatric Cardiology Consultant there, she is currently on the waiting list at Southampton for her sixth operation, so we have been following this story closely. I went up to Oxford for the consultation meeting, and have long held misgivings about the proposed new model of care. The announcement this week was an unexpected shock and I really felt the JR would now loose its surgical unit.
This was until I read the press release from Young Hearts, the support group for families involved in the Paediatric Cardiology unit at the JR. Some of the information contained in it I feel casts new light on the review and raises questions about its credibility. This I believe should be subject to further investigation.
For instance, one member of the independent review panel, Mr Brawn, was also Mr Calih Salih’s referee when he applied for the post at the JR, and presumably also for his subsequent appointment at Guy’s. Mr Salih was also Mr Brawn’s registrar at Birmingham in 2005-06. How can Mr Brawn therefore be independent when he has such close links to the surgeon involved? (Mr Salih was the surgeon involved in the 4 fatalities)
I attach a link to the full press release, HERE in the hope that it might inspire someone to take this rather further than the Today program did on Friday morning. I should also add that my husband Mr Neil Marshall has already commented to the Today Program that the interview on that subject was not as in depth as it either could or should have been and was one sided as it failed to cover any point of view other than that of the review panel. As regular regular Today programme listeners and radio 4 addicts we were disappointed by this.
Obviously we are unavoidably partisan in this matter but do believe it should be subject to objective investigation.
I am afraid that although I am happy to give my own views, I do not know anything more about the points brought up in this press release. I can however give you contact details for those that do.
With thanks in advance
