THE mother of a little girl born with half a heart tonight welcomed the decision that Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital would still be allowed to perform children’s heart surgery after more than a decade of uncertainty.

NHS England has published what it hopes will be the final decision on the future of units performing children’s congenital heart surgery (CHD) – and has ruled that both the Freeman, and Leeds General Infirmary, will continue, while three units in Central Manchester, Leicester and Royal Brompton in London will close.

Dawn Clasper, from Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, whose six-year-old daughter Evie was born with half a heart and has undergone more than 40 operations, said she was “hugely relieved”.

Evie needs a second heart transplant – and the only other place able to treat her is Great Ormond Street Hospital - which Ms Clasper said would have “ripped the family apart”.

The family would have been forced to move to London so Evie could have all the treatment she needs.

She said: “The Freeman has been amazing. Evie had her first surgery at a day old and she has spent more than two years of her life in hospital, on and off.

“They have always fought for her, even when the odds were against her. Other hospitals might have refused the treatment because she was too poorly – and it may have affected their targets – but they fought for her through everything.

“I really believe if we been treated somewhere else then Evie wouldn’t be with us. We are so lucky to have this hospital so close to us.”

Under the NHS plans, 13 centres that perform surgery will be cut to ten, and nine specialist cardiac centres will be cut to four.

All units providing adult and children’s congenital heart surgery in England were assessed against new standards to work out if they were providing good care.

They were all found to be providing safe care - with death rates within “acceptable” limits.

But it is hoped that by centralising services, outcomes for patients will continue to improve. Congenital heart disease services have been the subject of a number of reviews since a public inquiry at Bristol Royal Infirmary in 2001.