§ Mr. Peter BottomleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the timing involved in the case of the Eltham boy shot with an arrow and on the referrals made between the hospitals.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe patient was injured in a south London park and taken by helicopter ambulance to Moorfields Eye hospital. The doctor there thought neurosurgery might be necessary and referred him to the Royal London for a brain scan.
Following the scan, the neurosurgical consultant decided that the injury was primarily ophthalmic and it was not felt that there was any requirement for neurosurgical treatment beyond regular CT scan monitoring. At all times, the patient was conscious with no neurological signs.
He was then taken to the Smithfield site—Bart's—where the Royal Hospitals Trust bases its ophthalmology 169W services and where the injury was successfully treated. At no time was any life-saving procedure required or performed.