Opponents of a proposal to end child heart surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital, west London, expressed their concerns at a public meeting on Saturday.
The meeting was part of a ‘consultation’ in response to an NHS review of children’s heart services which recommends stopping child heart operations at up to five hospitals nationally.
The review was carried out by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts which recommends that, in London, children’s heart surgery would be carried out at just two hospitals – Evelina Children’s Hospital and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.
Hundreds of parents, doctors, nurses and campaigners turned up to the protest meeting.
Royal Brompton paediatrician, Dr Gillian Halley said the consultation was a ‘whitewash’, adding: ‘I took the Hippocratic Oath, first to do no harm, and this will inevitably cause harm.
‘Closing cardiac surgery will close the whole hospital; you’d be a fool to think otherwise.’
The proposal to axe children’s heart surgery at the Royal Brompton will put children’s lives at risk, according to the patients’ charity The Brompton Fountain, which last Friday launched a campaign to save the hospital’s children’s heart surgery unit.
The charity says shutting the unit defies medical logic and is not supported by the facts and figures in the review that makes the closure recommendation.
Almost 15,000 people have so far signed petitions in support of the Royal Brompton’s paediatric heart services.
Last month, the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust launched legal action against the Joint Committee of PCTs.
The Trust said that the recommendations were ‘fundamentally flawed’, warning that any consultation based on them would be ‘unlawful’.
A spokesperson for the Trust, said: ‘Although this is a decision we have taken with the greatest reluctance and regret, we feel we have no alternative but to act in the interests of our patients.
‘What we cannot accept is that a large, successful centre like Royal Brompton is not even included as an option in the consultation process, despite it being of the required size and despite its impressive record.’
The Trust warned the move would mean the loss of other services, which could call into question its viability.
