Surgeon behind Leeds heart unit shutdown is sacked

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Commons that Sir Roger Boyle will play no further part in the NHS Safe and Sustainable review of heart services, following controversial comments that he would not send his own children for treatment at Leeds General Infirmary.

Sir Roger, the country’s former heart tsar, played a central role in triggering the 12-day suspension of heart services at LGI this month, raising concerns over an early draft of figures which appeared to show high death rates in the unit. The data was later shown to be incomplete, and the unit reopened last week.

Mr Hunt defended Sir Roger’s decision to raise the alarm, but admitted his subsequent comments “could be seen as pre-judging” the conclusions of the ongoing national review of children’s heart services, to which he has been a senior advisor.

The review has recommended closing down LGI’s unit and sending its young patients hundreds of miles across the country to Newcastle or Liverpool, sparking a huge protest campaign and successful High Court challenge.

“(Sir Roger’s) comments to the media 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.

MPs from across Yorkshire condemned Sir Roger’s comments in an emergency debate yesterday, questioning how the proposal to close LGI’s heart unit can proceed in light of the “bias” shown by one its most senior advisers.

Pudsey MP Stuart Andrew said the surgeon’s “actions and comments must surely prove the decision to close the Leeds unit was predetermined”.

He added: “Sir Roger leaked data that was unverified to argue for the suspension of surgery. This info was incorrect and inaccurate. Leeds is a safe unit.”

Hull North MP Diana Johnson said Mr Hunt should consider scrapping the entire review due to “the inaccuracies and the prejudices against Leeds”.

Other MPs attacked the decision to suspend services at LGI at all, and called for a full inquiry.

Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield said the move “unnecessarily tarnished the reputation of a fine hospital, and caused enormous anxiety across Yorkshire”.

Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland demanded a full investigation “including the conduct, the judgment and the motivations of senior NHS officials involved”.

He said: “Considering that the decision to close children’s heart surgery in a safe unit puts children at greater risk, to make a decision of that nature when it was incorrect is simply unacceptable.”

His Lib Dem colleague David Ward, the MP for Bradford East, added: “The decision was not made after careful, thoughtful consideration of authoritative, verified data; it was a knee-
jerk reaction to what must, in all probability, have been malicious allegations made against the unit.”

Mr Hunt said he accepts that LGI is “a safe hospital”, but insisted the decision to suspend services had been the right one in light of the recent scandal at Mid-Staffordshire Hospital.

He said LGI was partially to blame, for failing to provide complete data on mortality rates.

“If there is evidence patient safety is at risk, it is absolutely right the NHS acts quickly and decisively to prevent harm,” he said.