The campaign to save Leeds’s children’s heart surgery unit has been dealt a further blow after being told a judicial review will go ahead as planned.
As reported in the YEP, officials from the Save Our Surgery campaign had asked for a stay of proceedings in its planned judicial review case against the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT).
They wanted the action to be put on hold until after the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP)’s review into the planned closure was completed at the end of February.
But a court hearing yesterday ruled that there would be no delay in the proceeding and the judicial review would go ahead as soon as possible.
Reposnding to the ruling, Sir Neil McKay CB, chairman of the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts, said: “Today’s judgment is a victory for families, parents and patients across the country. Save our Surgery Ltd brought a strange request to the court – to delay its own judicial review. This would have significantly delayed long overdue improvements to children’s heart services for months.
“The delaying tactics have failed. If the judicial review needs to be heard, we have always maintained that it should be heard as soon as possible. Medical royal colleges and national charities have warned that further delay to reform will put children’s lives at additional risk, highlighting the urgency of concluding the legal challenge quickly to avoid further delay in improving services for children with heart disease.”
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