Health Secretary has ‘full confidence’ in Leeds heart unit

Mr Hunt would soon be making decisions on the safe and sustainable review into children’s heart surgery, which is looking at centralising the service into fewer, more specialised centres, he told MPs at health questions in the Commons.

Pudsey MP Stuart Andrew said the Leeds unit had undergone the greatest scrutiny of all during the review.

Mr Hunt said: “I do have full confidence in the children’s heart surgery at Leeds. I know they do an excellent job.

“You will understand that when there are safety concerns they do have to be investigated. But I’m delighted those issues have been resolved and surgery is continuing.”

Operations were suspended in April after NHS England medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh received mortality data which suggested death rates were higher than the national average.

Mr Hunt defended the decision at the time, despite criticism the data was flawed and that no problems were found after an investigation, meaning operations could swiftly be resumed.

A shake-up of paediatric heart surgery units in England was triggered by the Bristol heart scandal between 1990 and 1995 in which 35 babies died and dozens more were left brain damaged.

In the wake of the landmark inquiry into the controversy at Bristol Royal Infirmary, it was recommended that paediatric cardiac surgery should be concentrated in a few specialist centres in order to ensure quality of care.

In 2009 officials launched the ‘’safe and sustainable review’’, conducted by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts of England, to assess how best to streamline paediatric congenital cardiac surgery services.

The review concluded that expertise was spread too thinly in the 10 sites which house the surgical units and should be concentrated in fewer hospitals.

In July last year officials announced that the Royal Brompton in London, Leeds General Infirmary and Glenfield Hospital in Leicester would close their units.

But the decision sparked legal challenges and further reviews, with final decisions still pending.