Leicester campaigners share views on legal challenge over heart unit move
Campaigners fighting NHS plans to stop children's heart surgery at Glenfield Hospital said they have mixed feelings about a legal challenge being mounted by protesters in Yorkshire.
Glenfield is one of four hospitals which will lose children's heart surgery services as part of the shake-up, which will mean youngsters having to travel to Birmingham instead.
Councillors in Leicestershire and Rutland have written to new Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt asking him to reconsider the decision on clinical grounds, but supporters have stopped short of a legal challenge.
However, counterparts from a campaign group at Leeds General Infirmary yesterday instructed lawyers to launch a judicial review.
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The Children's Heart Surgery Fund, in Leeds, is taking the legal action against the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts.
It could delay a final decision by the Health Secretary on Glenfield's future or spell the end of a review of children's heart surgery services that has already taken several years.
Adam Tansey, from Burbage, who set up the Keep the Beat charity to support the Glenfield unit, where his young son, Albert, is being treated, said: "We're going to have to wait and see what this legal challenge means.
"It could involve having to go through the whole process all over again. It has already taken three years, so that's quite concerning.
"However, on the other hand, it could allow clinical evidence which was not included before to be considered."
Supporters of the Children's Cardiac Surgery Unit at Glenfield will take part in a silent demonstration in Parliament Square, London, on Monday.
More than 65,000 people have signed an online petition calling for services at Glenfield to be saved. Visit: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/ petitions/35788
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