‘No evidence’ for closure of
heart unit says NHS review

A REVIEW of Leeds children’s heart surgery unit has found “no evidence” to back up the concerns which led to its sudden closure, officials say.

The findings of a second phase, looking at deaths among patients over the past three years, are now being checked as part of an NHS-ordered review looking into care at the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) service.

Last month surgery at the ward was suspended after NHS heads said data apparently showed high mortality rates and other concerns had been raised. The data has now been confirmed to have been inaccurate and death rates are within expected levels.

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Yesterday Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust chief executive Maggie Boyle said no evidence had been provided to substantiate any of the concerns.

Following the resumption of operations on a phased basis, the unit will be performing all surgery as normal by next week, she added.

Miss Boyle said a second phase of the review set up by NHS England had now been completed.

“Phase two is a case note review of the deaths which have occurred over the past three years,” she said. “We have done that and we are waiting for it to be subjected to further assessment and validation.”

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On March 28 NHS England bosses came to Leeds to present hospital bosses with evidence they said should lead to surgery being suspended.

Mortality data which it was claimed showed death rates at twice the level of other units was later shown to be incorrect because of gaps in data submitted by the hospitals trust.

Former ‘heart tsar’ Sir Roger Boyle, chairman of the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (Nicor), who had given the data to NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh, last week resigned from his post.

Sir Bruce has previously said the suspension was necessary not only because of the mortality data, but also after fears were raised by another unit and some families about care standards.

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Miss Boyle told Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust directors, as they considered a report about the issue: “At the time of writing this report, no evidence had been presented to substantiate any of the concerns which had been raised. That remains the case today.”

She said health watchdog the Care Quality Commission had been contacted by 14 families and was investigating three cases, with a possible fourth.

After the suspension, NHS England carried out an independent review of care which confirmed surgery was safe to restart.

Yesterday Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that it was “absolutely the right thing” to suspend children’s heart operations at LGI. Mr Hunt told MPs: “If there is a potential problem, the responsible thing, the only thing that Bruce Keogh could have done – faced with the information that he had – was to say: ‘We’re going to get to the bottom of this data, we’re going to find out if it’s right or not, but we’re going to suspend heart surgery while we do that’. And I think that was absolutely the right decision.”