PARENTS have launched a last ditch campaign to try and reverse a decision to stop children's heart surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

Last month, at the conclusion of the JCPCT’s safe and sustainable review on paediatric cardiac care, a panel decided that it was not viable to continue the services at the specialist hospital in Chelsea.

But campaigners have refused to give up, and have continued their fight to save the services, already gathering nearly 4,000 signatures on an online petition, and getting the support of politicians.

Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith, called on health secretary Andrew Lansley to meet the hospital’s doctors, to discuss the potential knock-on effects on children’s respiratory care and research,

Mr Slaughter said: “For the sake of the thousands of children whose care will be damaged by the decision, the sake of the research programmes that will be destroyed, and the sake of common sense, I hope that Mr Lansley will realise that the time has come for him to meet clinicians from the Royal Brompton and at least hear what they have to say.

“Perhaps he will be able to persuade them that destroying NHS services and research programmes that are viewed by international peers as among the best in the world is a good idea. I wish him luck in doing so.

“Removing children’s surgery and intensive care from Royal Brompton will have devastating consequences.”

But the committee, which spent nearly eight hours deliberating over 12 different options for the future of children’s heart surgery, said that the decision would not mean the closure of all respiratory services, but admitted the paediatric intensive care unit could be ‘rendered unviable.

The decision, made on July 4, means that London-based services will only remain at Great Ormond Street and the Evelina Children’s Hospital at St Thomas’s.

After a lengthy court battle to try and stop the decision going against the Royal Brompton, desperate parents are trying all they can to get the decision reversed.

An online petition has collected 3,900 signatures in just two weeks, and Kerry Rogers, mum of seven year-old Macauley who has been treated at the hospital for heart problems since birth, has set up a further offline petition.

She said: “I will do absolutely anything I can to stop this from going ahead. I’ll chain myself to Downing Street if I have to.

“Without the Brompton, I dread to think what could have happened to Macauley and to other kids. It’s a lifeline. We simply cannot lose it.”

But the Safe and Sustainable team has maintained that the decision will improve care for children with heart disease, by making sure that a higher quality of care is met in the remaining centres, rather than having it spread over a large area.

Sir Neil added: “The needs of children, not the vested interests of hospitals, have been at the heart of this review. We only took the decision after undergoing a robust, fair and transparent process which has already withstood the scrutiny of the highest courts in the land. We strongly believe our decision is in the best interests of all children and will ensure services are safe and sustainable for the future.”

The hospital itself has not yet decided on a course of action against the decision.