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Royal Brompton Hospital Congenital Heart Unit encompasses the paediatric cardiology and adult congenital disease departments and is located in the centre of London. The Royal Brompton Hospital is an internationally-recognised centre for the diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease, from the foetus to the adult, both with surgery and by means of transcatheter interventions. It is one of the largest foetal cardiology services in the UK, supported by our team of five specialists.

The paediatric unit is made up of two wards:

· ROSE ward with a total of 34 beds, including four high dependency unit (HDU) beds and three daycase beds
· PICU with 16 beds plus four HDU beds.

The unit offers a friendly home-from-home environment for children and is equipped with play and school rooms. The environment is specially designed to minimise the unease that children and their parents might feel when staying in a hospital.In the recent Healthcare Commission national assessment of services for children we achieved an ‘excellent’ rating, and our foetal cardiology service has recently been expanded to deal with the increasing number of patients referred to us from the UK and overseas. We provide a seamless pathway of care for patients with all types of heart disease, congenital or inherited, throughout their lives; from parents who have had a diagnosis of a congenital heart abnormality made in their unborn baby by one of our foetal cardiologists, through to care by our paediatric cardiology team for children from the first day of life until they are 16. In adolescence there follows a transition of care to one of our consultants trained in the treatment of adults with congenital heart abnormalities. This is supported by a transition program, run and led by four dedicated transition specialist nursing staff. This runs for Inherited Cardiac Conditions (ICC) and Congenital Heart Disease (CHD).Our patients frequently present as emergency referrals from other hospitals. The majority of new-borns with congenital heart disease are referred from maternity units throughout the South East.


Specialist services

· Brompton foetal cardiology

We have a full team made up of three consultants’ staff who specialise in pregnancy advice for women. We perform prenatal ultrasound scans in order to look for potential heart problems in the unborn baby from as early as 12 weeks gestation at the both the Trust’ sites, as well as:
o the Foetal Medicine Units at Queen Charlotte’s
o St George’s Hospital
o Chelsea and Westminster Hospitals.

· Walk-in murmur clinic

At Harefield Hospital, we have a weekly walk-in murmur clinic, which children with a GP referral letter can attend having arranged a personally convenient appointment by a prior telephone call.

· Children’s acute transport service
Royal Brompton Hospital works closely with Great Ormond Street Hospital and St Mary’s Paddington to provide the children’s acute transport service (CATS), to facilitate the safe and speedy transfer of children to a paediatric intensive care. The service aims to provide the highest-quality paediatric intensive care for children and their families, from the first point of contact to the final unit destination.

· Electrophysiology service

The unit is a national referral centre for children and adults with heart rhythm problems. Dr Jan Till leads the service and is a dedicated paediatric electrophysiologist, undertaking the full range of transcatheter and pacing interventions. She also runs a sudden adult death syndrome (SADS) clinic for paediatric relatives who may be affected with the syndrome.

· Transcatheter Interventions

A full range of transcatheter interventional procedures is undertaken in the unit for children and adults of all ages. A number of foetal interventions for certain severe antenatally diagnosed heart malformations also take place in the foetal medicine units.

· Inherited cardiac conditions
There is a large and thriving service for children and adults with:
o channelopathies
o cardiomyopathies
o aortopathies
o pulmonary hypertension
o genetics.

Family clinics are run offering a one-stop shop approach in channelopathy and cardiomyopathy and are reinforced by a team of specialist nurses dedicated to inherited cardiac condition.

· Research
The congenital service has published 65 peer review research papers in the last 12 months. A dedicated research coordinator post has recently been appointed.

· Respiratory paediatrics
There is a large paediatric respiratory unit at Royal Brompton Hospital where work is carried out with and alongside paediatric cardiology (surgery and PICU).

· Telemedicine
An extensive telemedicine network has been established and is currently being expanded. We hold virtual clinics in foetal and paediatric cardiology and emergency consultations with our referring hospitals, thus avoiding unnecessary travel for families and sick neonates.

Medical Staff

Surgeons working with both children and adults with congenital heart disease:

Mr Babulal Sethia, consultant cardiac surgeon

Professor Daryl Shore, consultant cardiac surgeon

Mr Guido Michielon, consultant cardiac surgeon

Mr Andreas Hoschtitzky , consultant cardiac surgeon

Mr Olivier Ghez, Consultant cardiac surgeon, Lead Paediatric cardiac surgeon

Cardiologists	Clinical Speciality / Other Detail
Professor Alain Fraisse	Director and Consultant in Paediatric Cardiology, specialising in paediatric interventional catheter laboratory procedures
Dr Jan Till	Consultant Electrophysiologist and Co-Director of Children Heart Services
Dr Rodney Franklin	Lead Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist
Dr Michael Rigby	MD FRCP FRCPCH Consultant Cardiologist Department of Paediatrics and Interventional Cardiologist Congenital Heart Disease, Children (lead)and Adults
Dr Piers Daubeney	Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist (Joint appointment with Chelsea & Westminster Hospital). Reader in Paediatric Cardiology - Imperial College
Dr Zdenek Slavik	Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist & RCPCH College Tutor, specialising in paediatric interventional catheter laboratory procedures
Dr Nitha Naqvi	Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist
Dr Giselle Rowlinson	Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist
Dr Sylvia Krupickova	Locum Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist
Dr Julene Carvalho	Consultant Fetal and Paediatric Cardiologist, Reader in Fetal Cardiology. Head of Brompton Centre for Fetal Cardiology (Joint appointment with St George’s Hospital)
Dr Margarita Bartsota	Consultant Paediatric and Fetal Cardiologist (joint appointment with Queen Charlotte’s Hospital and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital)
Dr Victoria Jowett	Fetal and Paediatric Cardiologist (Joint appointment at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in Imperial College NHS Trust)
Dr Konstantinos Dimopoulos	Consultant Cardiologist (ACHD)
Dr Lorna Swan	Consultant Cardiologist (ACHD)
Professor Michael Gatzoulis	Consultant Cardiologist (ACHD)
Dr Rafael Alonso	Consultant Cardiologist (ACHD) and Pulmonary Hypertension

Some of our young patients learn about healthy eating from celebritychef and] hospital food champion, Lloyd Grossman

Sarah Chorley, clinical ward manager, catches up with one of her younger patients in the play room

Dr Jan Till, paediatric consultant in electrophysiology, meets one of her younger outpatients at her regular clinic