CAMPAIGNERS opposed to the closure of a children's heart surgery unit said tonight they are "thrilled" after a High Court judge ruled in their favour.

But the decision by Mrs Justice Nicola Davies that plans to close the unit at Leeds General Infirmary would have to be reconsidered was greeted with frustration in the North-East.

The new judgement creates fresh uncertainty for the children's heart surgery unit at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

Last July - after a lengthy period of consultation - the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) backed proposals from top surgeons that all child heart surgery in England should be carried out at four rather than seven centres to improve patient safety.

Along with Alder Hey in Liverpool, The Freeman Hospital was chosen as the main centre for the North - at the expense of the Leeds unit.

But after a legal challenge by Leeds supporters the judge recently ruled that the consultation process which led to the decision was unfair.

Today the judge quashed the decision to stop children's heart surgery in Leeds.

But she stressed that she was only quashing part of the JCPCT decision so that there could be "reconsultation and reconsideration" over the proposed Leeds closure.

The judge emphasised that she was not ordering a re-run of the whole consultation.

After the ruling, Sharon Cheng, spokeswoman for the Leeds campaign group SOS (Save Our Surgery), said: "We are thrilled that the unfair and flawed decision to stop surgery in Yorkshire and the Humber has been quashed. Today's judgement vindicates our decision to pursue this case through the courts."

During the hearing, Fennella Morris QC, counsel for the Newcastle hospital said it had been part of the Leeds case that disclosure of sub-scores given to each centre during the assessment process would have revealed Newcastle's inferiority. Ms Morris said Newcastle scored significantly higher than Leeds, and that was hardly surprising as Newcastle was one of the top centres in the world for heart surgery.

Counsel for the Leeds hospital told the court there was no hostility towards Newcastle and it was very much regretted if that was the way SOS arguments had been interpreted.

Sir Leonard Fenwick, chief executive of the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The impact of such legal procrastination has serious consequences for the NHS serving only to frustrate and delay what needs to be done and quickly."

Sir Neil McKay, chair of the of the JCPCT, said: "We are strongly considering our grounds for appeal. The NHS remains as determined as ever to reconfigure children's heart services."

He said the JCPCT would aim to reach a "final decision" on the issue in June 2013, pending the outcome of the separate investigation into the consultation process by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel, ordered by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

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