THE FUTURE of the Leeds Children's Heart Unit has come a step closer to being secured after a "vital NHS endorsement."

Local MPs have praised a decision by the NHS England Board to sign off new standards that heart surgery units across the country must meet in future, with the Leeds unit already meeting many of them.

Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough MP Stuart Andrew praised the decision by the NHS England Board to approve the proposed model of care and standards, as well as the commissioning and implementation of the service, as recommended in the report by the new Congenital Heart Disease Review Team.

He said: "Now NHS England has approved the standards for children’s heart services, we are one step closer to securing the future of the Leeds Children’s Heart Unit.

"This is a vital endorsement, which will bring comfort to families who are tired of being left in the dark on what is such an important issue.

"Some of these standards are going to be hard for certain hospitals to achieve, but I am proud that in some cases, Leeds has already exceeded the standards with 98.2 per cent success rates, meaning families are going to have access to some of the best children’s heart services in the world. We now need to support children’s heart services in securing shorter travel distances, which will save lives, and ensure they get the necessary funding."

Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland said: "“The formal approval of the new standards hopefully takes us a step closer to securing the future of the Leeds Children’s Heart Surgery Unit.

"We hope this suggests positive news for the Leeds unit, but we are not there yet. So the campaign will proceed with a note of caution until we know for certain the unit’s future has been secured.”

The two MPs had worked alongside other Yorkshire MPs and the Save our Surgery (SOS) campaign, set up to fight to keep the Leeds unit open. More than 500,000 people signed a petition in support of the Leeds unit.