Last night, families in Leeds, Leicester, west London and Oxford were mourning the demise of their surgical centres where the lives of loved ones had been saved.
The long-awaited decision comes more than a decade after an inquiry into the Bristol heart baby scandal ruled that it would be in the best interests of patients to concentrate services in a small number of hospitals.
As a result, babies born with serious heart defects in some parts of England and Wales will have to travel further for surgery. They will be treated in bigger centres, with specialist surgeons performing more complex operations every year.
Medical experts hope children with other conditions will also be able to benefit from the introduction of fewer, larger and more specialist centres.
The Royal Brompton Hospital, in west London, which had tried to derail the process by suing the NHS after it was identified as the preferred "loser" in London during the consultation, said last n ight the decision was incomprehensible. The hospital, which will lose its intensive care unit, fears its world-class respiratory service will also have to close.
It is the largest specialist heart and lung centre in the UK and among the largest centres in Europe.
Leeds General Infirmary and the Glenfield hospital in Leicester will also lose their children's heart surgery units but will remain as centres for cardiology services where children will be seen and assessed for operations.
Members of the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts, set up for the review, decided last night to save Evelina Hospital, which is part of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Trust, and Great Ormond Street in London. The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, Birmingham Children's Hospital, Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, Southampton General Hospital and Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, have also been saved.
The committee assessed each against a set of quality and safet y standards and heard from more than 70,000 members of the public. The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford was forced to drop out of the race in 2010 after children's heart surgery was suspended because of safety concerns.
Although only a few hospitals will be offering heart surgery, other services will still be available to children nearer their homes. None of the cardiac departments will close. They will instead provide diagnostics, monitoring and non-surgical interventions.
The Safe and Sustainable review into children's cardiac surgery was announced by the NHS medical director in 2008 after all 11 hospital trusts agreed it was time for change.
At that time, 31 surgeons performed about 3,600 operations every year. Some hospitals had only two surgeons, too few to provide continuous cover, or train juniors, and rates of cancellations were as high as 10 per cent. But despite the consensus, the review provoked recriminations among hospital trusts.
The Ro yal Brompton NHS Trust in London became the first NHS organisation to sue another NHS organisation after it alleged that the consultation process was unlawful and "a classic backroom stitch-up".
Babies will now be treated in bigger centres, with specialist surgeons doing more complex operations
Case study
Caroline Mutton's son Oliver, three, has a congenital condition which causes the blood to flow incorrectly through his heart. Oliver visits outpatient services at the Royal Brompton four times a year
"I am upset beyond belief at the decision to close services at the Royal Brompton. I would like Oliver to be cared for in a place he knows and can be cared for into adulthood. They say outpatient services will remain but we fear cardiac centres that lose surgical services will become second tier. Personally, closure means Oliver's cardiac care decisions may move to Birmingham and for respiratory care we will probably have to go to Great Ormond Street. The poor kids that come to the Royal Brompton with respiratory disorders will be shunted all over London. As this plan is implemented I expect they will see the impact it has on cardiac and respiratory care and reverse the decision. We will carry on fighting."
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