Top surgeon is kicked off Leeds heart unit debate

The Health Secretary said while Sir Roger was one of Britain’s leading heart surgeons, his continued role in the Safe and Sustainable process aimed at centralising children’s heart surgery into specialist centres would end.

He said: “He did the right thing in informing Sir Bruce (Keogh, NHS England Medical Director) about his concerns over Leeds mortality data.

“However it is the view of Sir Bruce, with which I fully concur, his comments to the media on April 11 could be seen as pre-judging any future conclusions made by that review and so it is right he plays no further role in its deliberations.”

Mr Hunt said he believed the decision taken by Sir Bruce to close the Leeds children’s heart surgery unit was the correct one on the basis of the information presented to him.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, the Health Secretary said ensuring “do no harm” operated at the heart of the NHS meant that difficult decisions had to be taken.

He highlighted the recently uncovered scandal at Mid Staffordshire and the failings in children’s heart surgery at Bristol Royal Infirmary in the 1990s as examples of where this had not happened in the past.

The Health Secretary said: “The principle of first, do no harm, must run through the very heart of the NHS. If there is evidence patient safety is at risk, it is absolutely right the NHS acts quickly and decisively to prevent harm to patients.

“However difficult or controversial, we must never repeat the mistakes made at both Mid Staffs and Bristol where arguments over the quality of data prevented action that could have saved patients lives.”

Mr Hunt said Sir Bruce was presented with statistics and concerns about staffing which reasonably raised concerns about the Leeds unit.

He said: “Sir Bruce took the entirely appropriate decision to suspend children’s heart surgery whilst further investigations were made.”

Sir Bruce behaved “entirely properly”, Mr Hunt told MPs, both in the original decision and the further decision to green-light the resumption of low-risk surgery.

But Tory MP Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) attacked the process as undermining the Leeds hospital, insisting the affair demonstrated bias in the Safe and Sustainable review of children’s heart surgery.

He said: “No one would disagree if information is provided about the safety of a unit, it should be investigated but the quality of that information and the source of the complaints raises serious questions about the proportionality of the action taken and more importantly the motives of the complainants.

“Sir Roger Boyle was a key adviser to the safe and sustainable review, the review that proposed an illogical outcome for northern England and his recent actions and comments must surely prove the decision to close the Leeds unit was predetermined.

“Sir Roger leaked data that was unverified to argue for the suspension of surgery, an action described as appalling by its author. This info was incorrect, inaccurate and, when corrected, Leeds is a safe unit - in fact, in a similar position to Guys and Alderhay.”

Mr Andrew questioned why these other units were not recommended for suspension - suggesting it was because they were the ones Sir Roger had recommended survive the review.

He added: “Furthermore, on Friday, despite detailed scrutiny that proved Leeds is safe, Sir Roger claimed it was on the edge of acceptability and would not send his daughter there - clearly demonstrating a bias against Leeds and irresponsible to those parents whose children are now facing surgery.”

Mr Hunt said: “I hope the fact that surgery was indeed restarted on April 10 seeks to assuage your worry that the initial decision was linked to the Safe and Sustainable review - it wasn’t, it was a concern about patient safety and because that concern has been addressed, surgery has restarted.”

Mr Hunt said there were issues about the quality of the data which was partly the fault of the hospital not supplying it in the way needed.

“That was one of the reasons why the mortality data was not as good and as accurate as it should have been,” the Health Secretary said.

“What happened at Mid Staffs, where a big argument about data meant nothing happened for too long, what happened originally at Bristol, where up to 35 children may have lost their lives, is a warning of the dangers of inaction as well.

“On this occasion, overall, I think the NHS got it right.”

Standing in for shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, who was attending the Hillsborough disaster memorial service, shadow health minister Andrew Gwynne said: “This has descended into yet another trademark Government shambles.”

He added: “Does he accept that the suspension of surgery with all the consequent anxiety this caused patients and staff was at best a mistake and at worst an irresponsible and disproportionate action?”

“Does he (Mr Hunt) accept that the timing of the decision to suspend surgery so soon after the High Court’s ruling has caused a great deal of suspicion in Leeds and gives the distinct impression that this was a political decision and not based on clinical evidence?”

Mr Gywnne said the Health Secretary’s record so far had “failed to inspire confidence” in the process of reconfiguration and called for an urgent investigation into Leeds, examining what lessons could be learnt from “this unedifying episode”.

Mr Hunt said: “I did not authorise this decision but I wholeheartedly supported it because it was an operational decision made by NHS England and it’s right that a decision like that should be made by clinicians who understand these things better than we politicians do.”

Labour’s Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) spoke of the “deep disquiet” in Leeds about what had happened to the children’s heart surgery unit.

He said: “Given that the High Court has decided that the decision to close Leeds is unlawful and given that we have now had it confirmed that the Leeds unit was safe before and is safe still, when will he be able to reassure worried parents of very sick children that the future of the Leeds unit is also safe?”

Mr Hunt said it was his intention to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

Lib Dem Greg Mulholland (Leeds North West) said MPs should have heard from Mr Hunt on “this fiasco before today”.

He said: “His response has simply not been good enough considering what has happened during this fiasco.”

He added: “Considering that the decision to close children’s heart surgery in a safe unit, which is what we now know Leeds always was, puts children at greater risk, so to make a decision of that nature when it was incorrect is simply unacceptable.”

Mr Mulholland called for a full investigation “including the conduct, the judgement and the motivations of senior NHS officials involved”.