Children in need of heart transplants will soon be able to receive life-saving surgery in New South Wales, with the establishment of a dedicated Paediatric Heart Transplant (PHT) service at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW).
Premier Chris Minns will today be joined by NSW Health Minister Ryan Park to announce $1.8 million to start the specialist service, which will be operational from mid-2023.
The new service will be rolled out in a phased approach, starting initially with children 12 years and older, and will reduce the need for NSW families to travel interstate for heart transplants.
Up until now, children requiring heart transplants were referred to the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne, the Nationally Funded Centre (NFC) for paediatric heart transplantation, for their surgery.
Babies and children aged under 12 in need of heart transplants will continue to be referred to the RCH as needed as the new service is established and grows over time in NSW.
The NSW Government will continue to contribute funding to the National Centre at the RCH.
The benefit of a NSW-based service was demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when five children received heart transplants at CHW with the support of St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne.
The Paediatric Heart Transplant service in Sydney will reduce some of the financial and emotional stress for sick children and their families, and enable them to access care closer to home.
The new service will operate in close partnership with St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst, where heart transplants are performed for adults in NSW.
The service will be a boost to the suite of world-class health services offered at the Westmead Hospital Precinct.
The establishment of a paediatric heart transplant service at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead will enhance Australia’s overall capacity to deliver this life-saving surgery.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said:
“It’s a great initiative for Australia to have two specialist world-class services capable of providing life-saving paediatric heart transplant surgery.
“This is life-saving surgery we are talking about here, and these operations are often needed urgently.
“If your child needs an urgent heart transplant, you have enough worries without needing to stress about interstate travel.
“We saw during COVID that these surgeries could be performed here in NSW.
“We have NSW kids who need heart transplants, and we have the medical specialists to do it, so it makes sense to start doing them here.”
Minister for Health Ryan Park said:
“Performing paediatric heart transplants in NSW became a neccessity in 2021 when COVID-19 travel restrictions posed significant challenges for families who needed to relocate interstate.
“We were fortunate to have the skills and expertise available here to provide this lifesaving care and now we have the infrastructure to support it long-term and provide this service to NSW families who need it.
“NSW has long been recognised for the world-class care provided to paediatric cardiac patients and their families.
“This service builds on that model of care and is the next step in the evolution of paediatric advanced heart failure therapy across Australia.”
Dr Ian Nicholson, Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN) said:
“The ability to provide a comprehensive paediatric heart transplant service has been a dream for many of our team and we have been committed to doing everything we can to make that happen.
“To see this now coming to fruition is exciting, not just for us as clinicians, but for the children and families who rely on our care.”
Member for Parramatta, Donna Davis said:
“This is an amazing achievement for the team of talented clinicians here at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.
“This service will operate as a statewide referral service, which means very sick children from across NSW will be able to access the care they need, closer to home.”
