Patients will be protected, says Blair

Tony Blair said new measures should rule out any repetition of the Bristol tragedy

Prime Minister Tony Blair has given an assurance that everything possible will be done to prevent sub-standard surgeons operating on patients.

Three doctors from the Bristol Royal Infirmary face being struck off after the deaths of 29 babies in their care between 1988 and 1995.

In the biggest ever medical disciplinary inquiry, the cases against two cardiac surgeons - James Wisheart and Dr Janardhan Dhasmana - and their manager, Dr John Roylance, were proven before General Medical Council on Friday, May 29.

The surgeons had been allowed to continue to operate despite mounting evidence that their death rates were hugely in excess of the national average. The Department of Health knew there were problems in the children's heart unit three years before any official action was taken, according to a BBC investigation.

Dan Norris asked what steps were being taken to protect the public

Labour's Dan Norris, MP for Wansdyke, Somerset, asked Mr Blair at Prime Minister's Question Time for an assurance that a similar tragedy could not happen again.

Mr Norris said: "The General Medical Council inquiry heard that not even the Secretary of State could intervene on the internal running of the trust.

"Could I ask the Prime Minister what steps he is going to take to ensure that the medical profession is accountable and controlled so that the tragedy in Bristol can never, ever happen again?"

'Appalling tragedy'

Mr Blair said the "appalling tragedy" at Bristol must never be repeated and that an inquiry would be held into what went wrong.

"We do believe that procedures have changed already, however we are also committed, as we announced in our white paper recently, to an independent Commission for Health Improvement and the job that will be to ensure that quality controls are in place in every hospital in the country, every NHS trust will be visited every 3-4 years and it will have special powers to investigate whether there are any particular problems in any the hospital.

"Its findings will be made public and acted upon and patients themselves will have a voice on the commission. We believe the combination of existing procedures that are better since these deplorable incidents occurred and the improvements we will put in should combine to give people the best possible chance of any such tragedy happening again."

The Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons announced this week that it will collect death rates for every heart surgeon in the country, and will take remedial action where required.