Partial victory for heart surgery campaigners

A High Court judge has quashed part of an NHS consultation process to decide the future of children's heart surgery in Leeds. Mrs Justice Nicola Davies acted after recently ruling that the process was legally flawed in relation to the decision to close the unit at Leeds General Infirmary.

The judge said aspects of the Leeds consultations, including a failure to make relevant information available to consultees, was "ill judged". But she stressed she was only quashing "one part" of the JCPCT decision so that there could be "re-consultation and reconsideration" over the Leeds closure.

The judge emphasised that she was not ordering that the whole consultation process had to return to the start. Her decision was a qualified victory for Save Our Surgery (SOS), which represents some 600,000 residents in the Leeds area fighting to keep their unit open.