Campaign for the heart unit

Campaigners hoping to save the Leeds Children's Heart Unit have suffered a blow to their efforts. The specialist centre, which serves children with cardiac conditions across the region, is threatened with closure as part of the NHS’s ‘Safe & Sustainable’ review of children’s heart surgery provision across the country. If it were to close it would mean travelling to either Newcastle or Liverpool for treatment instead.

The Royal Brompton Hospital in London also has a unit facing closure. However, it** challenged the way the consultation process was carried out by NHS bosses.

At the Court of Appeal, though, a judicial review has ruled that major consultations were lawful.

It had been thought that if the hospital had won its case then plans for all hospitals, including the one **in Leeds, would have to be examined again.