13.02.13
Leeds child heart surgery legal bid continues
The High Court legal bid to retain child heart surgery at Leeds is to continue, with a third day of submissions to be heard on February 18.
The Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) has ruled that child heart surgery units at Leeds, Leicester and London’s Royal Brompton should be closed, following a Safe and Sustainable review of surgery.
Campaign group Save our Surgery (SoS) is seeking a judicial review of reorganising surgery, to concentrate it at fewer, larger centres. SoS is claiming that the consultation process is unfair and legally flawed.
The challenge centres on how performance scores for each centre were worked out by the panel of experts.
Sir Neil McKay CB, chair of the JCPCT said: “I believe that the NHS decision to expand access to local care and pool surgical expertise is right for children with congenital heart disease and their families. If we want to save more children's lives and reduce complications such as brain damage, we believe it's the right decision for the country.
“We believe that the consultation was transparent, fair and lawful however I do not deny citizens' right to challenge NHS decision makers when appropriate to do so and we have defended the very detailed process in the High Court.
“Save Our Surgery has argued that we should keep heart surgery in both Leeds and Newcastle. We considered this carefully but maintaining the status quo is not the answer as it would leave children in Yorkshire and Humberside with an inferior service than children in the rest of country would receive.”
Sharon Cheng of Save Our Surgery said: “We are acting on behalf of concerned families and clinicians, and will continue to argue that children and patient’s rights should be the priority in determining where heart surgery services are located, over and above individual agendas.”
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