MPs give backing to fight over heart move

MORE than 30 MPs and peers from across the region gave their support yesterday to campaigners who have pledged to renew their fight to save children’s heart surgery in Yorkshire.

Representatives from the Leeds-based Children’s Heart Surgery Fund charity and hospital officials from Leeds met senior figures in Westminster to discuss a series of “flaws and inaccuracies” in a landmark review which last week opted to axe surgery at Leeds General Infirmary.

Hundreds of youngsters from the region with heart complaints will instead be expected to travel mainly to Newcastle for treatment.

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Today councillors in Leeds are expected to refer the decision made by NHS chiefs to the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley amid a furious outcry over the move which will leave children from northern Lincolnshire with a three-hour journey for treatment in the North-East, while those from Sheffield and Hull face more than two-and-a-half hours on the road.

Surveys have indicated many will instead travel to alternative centres in Liverpool, Birmingham or even London, which opponents claim makes Newcastle unsustainable as its surgeons will fail to carry out a minimum 400 procedures a year as required by the review.

Charity director Sharon Cheng described the talks as “productive”.

She added: “Since the decision was announced, the outcry from patients and parents has been overwhelming and we are glad that the MPs are listening to their constituents. We believe the process and decision is fundamentally flawed. We are going to keep fighting as we believe the case for Leeds has never been stronger.”

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Campaigners argue 14.2m people live less than two hours driving time from the unit in Leeds but only five million live within two hours of Newcastle Freeman’s Hospital which, unlike the Leeds unit, does not have all of its children’s services available on one site.