Former Cabinet minister and foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind has criticised the closure of a London children’s heart unit.
The MP for Kensington and Chelsea said the Royal Brompton had an “outstanding” reputation and that other areas of patient care would suffer.
Sir Malcolm said: “Why remove a paediatric service that has such an outstanding reputation, that’s recognised internationally and its mortality rates are less than half the national average? You have to have a particularly good reason.
"The hospital has pointed out that you can’t remove paediatric services without having a knock-on impact on respiratory services. You have to ensure, if you’re rationalising, that it’s in the right direction.”
Today health bosses will make a formal announcement on the future of the Brompton’s child intensive care unit.
It is part of a countrywide rationalisation plan of children’s heart surgery which experts claim will improve services.
London’s paediatric cardiac services are now expected to be concentrated at Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Evelina Children’s Hospital.
