Ministry Reports
Specialized Pediatric Services Review
Report of The Minister's Advisory Committee, April 2002
On November 5, 2001, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care called for a provincial review of specialized pediatric services. This report provides the findings and recommendations of the Specialized Pediatric Services Review Committee (SPSRC), the provincial committee formed to provide advice to the Minister. The SPSRC included representation from the province's five academic health sciences centres (AHSCs) with specialized pediatric programs and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
This report provides a review and recommendations for the future delivery of pediatric cardiac surgery. As well, preliminary recommendations on pediatric organ transplantation are provided based on the information currently available.
The report builds on the considerable work done in the past on this topic, including the Health Services Restructuring Commission's (HSRC) provincial review of specialized pediatric services. The HSRC's report has been used by the SPSRC as a reference point for its work. The HSRC's major recommendations included: consolidation of pediatric cardiac surgery at The Hospital for Sick Children (if Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario is unable to attain 200 annual cases); consolidation of kidney, heart, lung, and liver transplants at The Hospital For Sick Children for patients under 15 years old; and establishment of a pediatric coordinating group to develop guidelines to include minimum volumes for critical mass. The SPSRC updated the HSRC's data and analyses, which was based on 1995/96 data, to provide a current context upon which to base recommendations for the future delivery of tertiary pediatric cardiac surgery and pediatric transplantation services.