Heart unit assessor accused of dismissing doctors’ concerns

Mike Collier said he took “strong exception” to the comments by the director of the review which recommended the Leeds unit should shut.

In response to a story in the Yorkshire Post, Jeremy Glyde said “we need to put the interests of children first, not the vested interests of pressure groups and individual hospitals”.

However Mr Collier said in a letter: “I take strong exception to the dismissal of their views by Jeremy Glyde, the Safe and Sustainable programme director.

“Given that the Safe and Sustainable team have made great play of the fact that this review has been clinically-led and supported, it is quite staggering that Mr Glyde is so cavalier in dismissing the view of 170 of the very clinicians required to enact the outcome of the review, however it is eventually decided.”

A Leeds politician has also waded into the row, accusing the review team of “protecting their own pet projects”. Councillor John Illingworth said: “The welfare of Yorkshire children has counted for very little”.

The angry reactions were prompted by the response to last week’s story about a letter signed by 170 Yorkshire medics.

Written by Leeds doctor Mark Darowski, the specialists’ letter said they had “serious concerns” about plans to close the Leeds unit.

Last July, NHS heads decided, following recommendations by the Safe and Sustainable review, that the unit should stop doing children’s heart surgery.

Hundreds of youngsters would have to travel much further, mainly to a hospital in Newcastle.

But the letter from doctors, given last week to a team visiting Leeds to carry out an independent review of the shake-up, said that medics would not send children further than necessary if the Leeds unit shut.

It said that they wanted to “dispel any misconceptions that there is widespread professional support for the decision”.

In response to the story about the letter, Jeremy Glyde, Safe and Sustainable programme director, said: “It’s no surprise that some clinicians in Yorkshire have expressed public support for their local services.

“They would, wouldn’t they – just as clinicians in other areas would support their local services – but we need to put the interests of children first.”

That prompted a reaction from Leeds hospitals chairman, who said: “It is true that all of us concerned in the current debate surrounding the proposed closure of the Leeds paediatric cardiac surgery service do have a vested interest.

“This interest is the welfare of the majority of current and future patients and their families from the North East and Yorkshire and Humber regions.

“In Leeds we believe that their interest is best served by the retention of both the Newcastle and Leeds centres.”

“I would prefer My Glyde to spend more time addressing these issues about which the whole of Yorkshire and Humber region is united than casting doubts on the motives of the 170 clinicians who signed the letter,” his response letter said.

Mr Collier’s views were echoed by Coun Illingworth, chairman of the regional joint health overview and scrutiny committee which has strongly criticised the closure plans. He said: “Anybody who studies their decision to close the Leeds children’s heart unit concludes very quickly that Safe and Sustainable are mainly interested in protecting their own pet projects.”

A spokesman for Safe and Sustainable said they did not wish to respond to the comments.