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Paediatric Cardiac Services Taskforce : Consultation Process

In response to a Review of Paediatric Cardiac Services  (pdf), commissioned by Queensland Health, and recommendations in the Queensland Health Systems Review, the Minister for Health today announced the establishment of a taskforce on paediatric cardiac services.

This paper outlines the consultation process which the taskforce will undertake. It includes taskforce membership, the key questions which the taskforce must address, how to make a submission and the timelines for doing so.

The taskforce will be made up of the following people:

• Three Clinical Specialists
• Three parents of children who have received paediatric cardiac services
• The Area Health Services Managers, Central and Southern Area Health Services
• The District Managers of the three affected hospitals, namely, The Prince Charles  Hospital, The
• Royal Brisbane Children’s Hospital, and The Mater Children’s Hospital 
• The Director General, Queensland Health (Chair)

The taskforce will focus on systemic issues affecting the delivery of paediatric services. A key recommendation of the Review is that the current paediatric services at the Mater Children’s Hospital, the Royal Children’s Hospital and The Prince Charles Hospital should be subsumed into a single, purpose built Queensland Hospital for children.

The key questions which the taskforce must address are:

• Is this the service delivery model which ensures that the children of Queensland receive the optimal standard of paediatric cardiac care?
• If so, what are the ways in which this model might be implemented in Queensland and what are the implications of this approach for the provision of paediatric services as a whole?
• If not, what alternative models should be considered and why might they be more appropriate?

As the taskforce will focus on systemic issues, it will not focus on the work of individual clinicians. The review has made it clear that it regarded those clinicians involved in the delivery of paediatric cardiac services as ‘well trained, well experienced and held in high repute by their peers.’

If you would like to make a submission, please do so in writing to the taskforce secretary, at the email or postal addresses outlined below.

Consultation will run for a period of 12 weeks from 1st April 2006 until 30 June 2006.

The taskforce will be presenting its findings to the Minister, on completion of its work.

Submissions should sent by email to: pcstaskforce@health.qld.gov.au

Alternatively submissions should be posted to: The Secretary, Paediatric Cardiac Services Taskforce, Queensland Health Building, GPO Box 48, Brisbane, Queensland 4001. 

Queensland Health advises persons wishing to make a submission to the taskforce that making critical comments about an individual, or groups of individuals, that could be identified by a person reading the comments, may subject the person making the submission to an action for defamation under the Defamation Act 2005.

Please Note: In order for the Taskforce to take all written submissions into account, it is necessary that these be submitted to the Taskforce secretary no later than Friday 2nd June 2006.