Campaigners start legal action to stop closure of Leeds children’s heart surgery unit
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* Clare Dyer

Campaigners fighting to save the children’s heart surgery unit at Leeds General Infirmary have launched legal action in the High Court over the decision to close it.

Leeds is one of three units facing the axe as part of a review of children’s paediatric cardiac surgery services in England, which concluded that services should be concentrated in fewer, more specialised centres.1

The action group Save Our Surgery has applied to the High Court for permission to seek a judicial review of the decision last July by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts’ “Safe and sustainable” review to close the Leeds unit.2

The group said that the decision meant that patients in Yorkshire and the Humber would have to travel up to 240 km to Newcastle, Birmingham, or Liverpool for treatment. It argued that the way the Leeds and Newcastle units were scored by a panel of experts and the way that scores were dealt with during the consultation led to flaws in the decision making process.

It said that Leeds had a much larger unit, with more facilities and staff, and that the joint committee’s proposal would involve “trying to fit a larger centre into a smaller one.”

In addition, the group said that the move would leave the whole Yorkshire and Humberside region without a centrally located children’s heart surgery unit. Children and their families might have to undertake a 2.5 hour journey when the children were in critical condition.

SOS said that it was forced to take legal action when the joint committee rejected the group’s proposal for a delay till 2014 to allow the decision and its consequences to be reviewed.

Kevin Watterson, a congenital heart surgeon at the hospital, said, “We have grave concerns about how this decision has been reached and the impact it will have on patients and their families.

“When you consider the location of patients in the north and their proximity to Leeds—a surgical unit previously classed as ‘excellent’ in terms of safety by Sir Ian Kennedy’s panel of experts—and how far some patients will now have to travel to receive urgent care, you can only conclude that the NHS core principles of patient safety, experience, and outcomes have not been the central factors in this decision.

“We are fighting to keep children safe, and we believe that challenging the decision is the only way of doing that at this stage.”

The Leeds unit is the second of the three facilities set for closure to have mounted legal action against the decision. The Royal Brompton Hospital in London won its initial challenge in the High Court but lost on appeal.3

## Notes

**Cite this as:** *BMJ* 2012;345:e6744

## References

1.  Hawkes N. Three children’s heart surgery units to close 13 years after Bristol inquiry. BMJ2012;345:e4635.
    
    [FREE Full Text](http://www.bmj.com/lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiRlVMTCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6MzoiYm1qIjtzOjU6InJlc2lkIjtzOjE3OiIzNDUvanVsMDVfMy9lNDYzNSI7czo0OiJhdG9tIjtzOjIzOiIvYm1qLzM0NS9ibWouZTY3NDQuYXRvbSI7fXM6ODoiZnJhZ21lbnQiO3M6MDoiIjt9) 

2.  Dyer C. Charity challenges closure of children’s heart surgery unit at Leeds. BMJ2012;345:e6182.
    
    [FREE Full Text](http://www.bmj.com/lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiRlVMTCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6MzoiYm1qIjtzOjU6InJlc2lkIjtzOjE3OiIzNDUvc2VwMTNfMS9lNjE4MiI7czo0OiJhdG9tIjtzOjIzOiIvYm1qLzM0NS9ibWouZTY3NDQuYXRvbSI7fXM6ODoiZnJhZ21lbnQiO3M6MDoiIjt9) 

3.  Dyer C. Consultation process on closing children’s cardiac surgery services at Brompton Hospital was fair, judges rule. BMJ2012;344:e2896.
    
    [FREE Full Text](http://www.bmj.com/lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6NDoiRlVMTCI7czoxMToiam91cm5hbENvZGUiO3M6MzoiYm1qIjtzOjU6InJlc2lkIjtzOjE3OiIzNDQvYXByMjBfMi9lMjg5NiI7czo0OiJhdG9tIjtzOjIzOiIvYm1qLzM0NS9ibWouZTY3NDQuYXRvbSI7fXM6ODoiZnJhZ21lbnQiO3M6MDoiIjt9)