POORLY children needing life-saving heart surgery face having to travel hundreds of miles after a decision was made to axe heart surgery in Yorkshire.

A panel last night decided to close Yorkshire’s only children’s heart surgery unit based at Leeds General Infirmary.

It means Huddersfield and Calderdale children and their families face a trip to Liverpool, Newcastle or even further afield for heart surgery.

It was members of the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCMCT) who made the decision at 7pm last night after eight hours debating the national proposals.

Gaynor Bearder, of Linthwaite, whose four-year-old son Joel was saved by the unit, travelled to the hearing and said: “I am completely devastated, we all are.

“I can’t believe it, it feels like they’ve done us over.”

Sharon Cheng, Director of the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, branded it a “rubber stamping exercise” saying: “The panel has listened to clinicians and doctors and ultimately decided ‘doctors know best’.

“Clinical logic has not been taken into consideration. They have ignored co-location. They have ignored patient choice.

“We will now appeal to the health minister as he assured us a decision would be made on clinical logic.

“I would like to re-iterate the message Andrew Lansley has quoted in the past ‘No decision about me without me’.”

A petition of more than 600,000 was submitted to the deciding panel opposing the closure of the unit.

Two local MPs say the views of those 600,000 people have been ignored.

Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney said: “I am absolutely appalled by the decision of the JCPCT, it’s hugely disappointing.

“Myself and many other MPs of all parties will ask the ministers to now do what we were elected to do and represent the people and we’ll be asking the Secretary of State for Health to overturn this decision.

“We had to wait until now for the JCPCT to make their decision, now we can crack on and fight this in Parliament.”

The MP said he expected questions on the decision to go before Parliament today.

Calder Valley MP Craig Whittaker added: “This is incredibly devastating for the people of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Humberside.

“I just think this quango has totally disregarded everything the people of Yorkshire have told them – more than half a million people signed a petition and they’ve not been listened to.

“I’ve had constituents come in to speak to me about this and they are the ones whose children have been treated there, this affects them and many others in the future.”

Dr Sara Matley, a Clinical Psychologist based at the unit, who lives in Edgerton, tweeted that it was “massively disappointing” adding: “Don’t for a moment think this is the end.”

Nationally, there were 10 units in England with up to four put at risk as part of the proposals. In the end they decided three should cease carrying out surgical operations – the Royal Brompton in London, Glenfield in Leicester and Leeds.

The JCPCT called for the NHS Safe and Sustainable review amid fears expertise was spread too thinly.

But Leeds campaigners said they serve 14.2 million people in Yorkshire and the Humber within a two hour drive time – while there are three million people within the same distance of Newcastle.

Mike Collier, Chairman of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “This result flies in the face of logical health care planning and plain common sense.

“This decision seems almost perverse in light of the information which became available during the course of the consultation process.

“On geography and population density alone the case for Leeds remains as strong as ever.”

All three hospitals where heart surgery will now be axed will continue to provide specialist procedures throughout 2013 while plans to implement the new streamlined service are developed.

Once the selected hospitals stop surgery, the units will still see patients for diagnosis, monitoring and non-surgical treatment.