Catalogue description The Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry Website

Please see information at Divisional level.

The Bristol Inquiry was an investigation into children's heart surgery carried out at the Bristol Royal Infirmary Hospital between 1984 and 1995. Following a statement to the House of Commons on Thursday 18 June 1998 by Frank Dobson, Secretary of State for Health, it was set up in 1998 to investigate the deaths of 29 babies undergoing heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Its Terms of Reference were to inquire into the management of the care of children receiving complex cardiac surgical services at the Bristol Royal Infirmary between 1984 and 1995 and relevant related issues; to make findings as to the adequacy of the services provided; to establish what action was taken both within and outside the hospital to deal with concerns raised about the surgery and to identify any failure to take appropriate action promptly; to reach conclusions from these events and to make recommendations which could help to secure high quality care across the NHS.

The Inquiry first met in October 1998 and was chaired by Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, professor of health law, ethics and policy at University College London. The Inquiry reported July 2001, and the vast 529-page report effectively provided a blueprint for wider reform of the NHS.