Health Secretary orders inquiry on Leeds children’s heart unit closure

Jeremy Hunt has asked the Independent Reconfiguration Panel to carry out a review into the decision to close the unit as well as those at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester and the Royal Brompton in Chelsea in west London. The panel will decide by February whether it believes the recommendations to close the units will streamline paediatric heart services.

The review comes after councillors in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire contacted Mr Hunt with concerns about the closure of the unit at Glenfield.

Earlier this month a campaign group which is fighting to keep the Leeds unit open launched legal proceedings against NHS officials who made the decision.

Save Our Surgery (SOS) said it has filed for permission for a judicial review against the decision made by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) to close the unit. If the judicial review goes ahead, the IRP review will be put on hold.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “The Secretary of State has asked the Independent Reconfiguration Panel to conduct a full review of the Safe and Sustainable review of Children’s Congenital Heart Services.”

In July it was announced that the hospitals would stop performing the specialist surgery in a move to streamline paediatric congenital cardiac surgery services.

Officials decided to close the units after an NHS review concluded that expertise was spread too thinly and should be concentrated in fewer hospitals. The Safe and Sustainable review followed the landmark inquiry into children’s heart surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary between 1990 and 1995, where up to 35 children and babies died as a result of poor care.

After the inquiry, it was recommended that paediatric cardiac units be set a target for the number of operations per year, and surgery be concentrated in a few specialist centres to ensure quality of care.

The institutions which will house the specialist surgery centres are: Evelina Hospital, which is part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital Trust in London, Great Ormond Street in London, Southampton General Hospital, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.