A FINAL decision about where children have heart surgery can now be made after the Court of Appeal ruled that a review was fair and lawful.
The Safe and Sustainable review of paediatric cardiac surgery came out of the Bristol Heart Inquiry into deaths of babies during and after operations in the city in the 1980s and 90s.
Bristol Children's Hospital, pictured, – which now has some of the best survival rates in the country – was chosen as one of the major surgical centres as part of the review but the Royal Brompton Hospital in London launched a legal challenge – estimated to have cost the parties involved a total of £1.2 million – against the consultation, claiming it was "deeply flawed".
Yesterday three Court of Appeal judges found that the public consultation was "fair, lawful and proper" and dismissed the claims made by the London hospital, making way for a final decision on the future of children's heart services to be made on July 4.
Professor Sir Ian Kennedy recommended after the Bristol Heart Inquiry that specialist children's services should be concentrated in a small number of trusts throughout England.
Sir Neil McKay, chairman of the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts, said: "The judgment will be welcomed by specialist heart doctors and nurses, national children's charities and the families of children with congenital heart disease."
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