Judge’s ruling brings hope over Yorkshire child heart surgery

A High Court Judge yesterday ordered that the consultation looking at restricting surgery to a smaller number of centres to improve patient safety be “quashed” after London’s Royal Brompton Hospital claimed it was “shot through with legal error”.

The Royal Brompton sought a judicial review of the NHS “Safe and Sustainable” review after it proposed cutting one of London’s three centres currently carrying out children’s heart operations as well as proposing the closure of the unit at Leeds General Infirmary in three out of four options it proposed.

Although most of the Royal Brompton’s complaints were rejected, Mr Justice Own upheld the claim that the hospital had been unfairly rated on research and innovation, hampering its chances of survival. NHS bosses have said they will appeal, but if that is not successful the entire consultation will have to be repeated, with a final decision delayed until the spring.

Campaigners in Leeds, who collected 600,000 signatures in support of the unit, are now studying the detail of the verdict. They claim the consultation has also been skewed against Leeds General Infirmary by using inaccurate data and initially failing to offer foreign language forms, making it difficult for some ethnic minority patients to take part.

Reacting to the ruling, Pudsey MP Stuart Andrew said: “It’s good news as it backs up what we’ve been saying. There are flaws in this process and we need them to start looking at this root and branch if they are to put any form of confidence into this process.”

Lawyers for the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust argued that the consultation was “shot through with legal error” and said the hospital’s future would be in doubt if the heart surgery unit closed.

The recommended options published in March favoured keeping the Evelina Hospital, which is part of Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital Trust, and Great Ormond Street. None of the options included the Royal Brompton, but lawyers said closing the Royal Brompton would be an “act of bureaucratic vandalism”.

Of the four options, only one included surgery in Leeds, with patients and their families from across the region otherwise facing trips to Liverpool, Newcastle or Leicester. NHS bosses have since insisted that fresh options put forward during the consultation will be considered.

Sir Neil McKay, chairman of the Joint Committee of the Primary Care Trusts leading the review, said: “I am genuinely saddened that this court action has delayed a process that will deliver vital changes needed to improve outcomes for children across the country.”

At the same time as preparing for an appeal, he wrote to the chief executives of all the surgical centres “inviting them, if they so wish, to re-submit fresh evidence relating to their ability to meet the standards relevant to ‘research and innovation’”.

If it became necessary to change scores, the new ones would be taken into consideration.

If the JCPCT was not successful on appeal, or it decided to hold a further public consultation because an appeal would take too long, meetings would take place with the objective of making “a final binding decision” by next spring at the latest.

Jeremy Glyde, Safe and Sustainable programme director, said: “The case for change has never been stronger. We need fewer, larger centres carrying out children’s heart surgery. We need hospitals to work collaboratively in the interests of patients, not themselves.”

Last week members of the Save our Heart Surgery Unit campaign in Leeds met Health Minister Simon Burns along with Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves to press their case, although Ministers have been at pains to stress that the review is being carried out independently by NHS experts.

MPs from all three parties and from across Yorkshire have joined forces to campaign on behalf of the Leeds centre.