Call to Cameron over fears for heart surgery

PRIME Minister David Cameron has been urged to halt a review that could see children’s heart surgery axed in Yorkshire amid warnings from doctors that young patients will die if they are forced to travel for life-saving treatment.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Liberal Democrat Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland yesterday raised concerns that ambulance transfers out of the region “would be unsafe and could prove fatal”.

The heart surgery unit at Leeds Children’s Hospital is included in only one of four potential future configurations of care under a NHS review to provide highly-complex services in fewer, more specialist centres.

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More than 300 patients from the region each year would face journeys to Liverpool, Leicester or Newcastle for surgery if the Leeds centre closed – although hundreds more with suspected heart problems would also be affected including newborn babies.

Yorkshire’s joint health overview and scrutiny committee has been told by top surgeon Kevin Watterson the move would be a “step backwards”.

“I think the Yorkshire population are being sacrificed and I think that’s wrong,” he said.

He said the extra time it took to transfer very sick babies to Newcastle could prove fatal.

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“There are going to be youngsters who will die, I am certain of that,” he said.

His colleague, paediatric intensive care specialist Mark Darowski said: “The most disadvantaged population will be from the east coast and I think a small number of children will die because of that additional distance.”

In the Commons, Mr Mulholland appealed to Mr Cameron to stop the review.

He said: “Given that the report into the review of children’s heart units of course commissioned by the last government contains factual errors and there is a question over the impartiality of the board that made the final recommendations, will you now agree to halt the process and, if not, do you think the only option is judicial review?”

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Mr Cameron said: “We want to make sure this review is as transparent as possible and is engaged with parents and with everyone in communities.

“I would say this – there are many times when rather bogus arguments are put forward for specialisation in the NHS. But I think in a really complicated case like child heart surgery there are cases for specialisation.

“As passionately as we all want to defend our own hospitals, we do have to think about clinical safety and what is best for children.”

Hospital chiefs in Leeds have pointed to concerns about the way the review was carried out including the failure to recognise all its services and the use of incorrect information.

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Around 14 million people live within two hours drive of Leeds, almost five times as many as the Newcastle unit which the review team assumes would treat 140 patients each year from the Leeds, Wakefield, Harrogate, York and Hull postcodes even though more than half live significantly closer to alternatives in Liverpool or Leicester.

The newly created children’s hospital in Leeds is among only two in the country to provide all paediatric services under one roof in line with national guidelines.

Hospital chiefs at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London have launched a judicial review over the plans which will see their unit closed.

A series of meetings is being held by the Leeds-based Children’s Heart Surgery Fund which is fighting plans to close the Yorkshire centre. The next will at the Marriott Hotel, York, on Saturday at 11am. A formal public consultation event will be held at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, on May 10.

The consultation runs until July and a final decision will be made at the end of the year.