Hospital to learn fate online

Campaigners, patients, parents and NHS staff will gather together to watch the decision being made on the future of Glenfield Hospital's children's heart centre.

The meeting of heath bosses in London, which will determine if the hospital becomes one of six or seven surgical centres for children born with heart problems, will be broadcast live on the internet on July 4.

Key supporters, including Leicester West MP Liz Kendall, will get together to watch the key decision online at Glenfield.

Ms Kendall, who has campaigned on behalf of the unit, said: "I will be with everyone at Glenfield to hear the decision on July 4.

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"I wouldn't be anywhere else.

"Hopefully, we will be able to celebrate success and if the decision is bad we can show people we will fight against the decision."

A review of children's heart centres is likely to see the number of hospitals carrying out the surgery cut from 11 to just six or seven.

Glenfield was named in just one of four options of hospitals being considered to become children's heart surgery centres.

If Glenfield is not chosen, children would have to have heart operations in Birmingham.

More than 75,000 people took part in a public consultation last year, almost 60 per cent of whom were in favour of the Glenfield option.

A decision by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts was delayed after a legal challenge by the Royal Brompton Hospital in London.

Leicestershire charity Heart Link is laying on refreshments for the decision event.

Gill Smart, a founder of the charity and its treasurer, said: "The result is what we need and what we are waiting to hear. This has been dragging on for a long while and each time you think you have reached the post the finishing line seems to move.

"This decision is so important to us all – patients, parents and staff."

Last week, Heart Link, founded 32 years ago, presented more than £20,000 worth of specialist medical equipment and breast pumps to the hospital.

Adam Tansey, from Burbage, whose son Albert is a patient at Glenfield after he was born with half a heart, will also be there. Mr Tansey, who, with his wife, Annita, founded the charity Keep the Beat, which also buys equipment for the hospital, said: "I want to be with everyone else to hear the decision."

A hospital spokesman said: "Our supporters have worked tirelessly throughout this process to make everyone aware of the incredible life-saving work that goes on every day at Glenfield Hospital."