Leeds Heart Surgery: NHS Exec Urged To Quit

A top NHS executive is facing calls for his resignation after the suspension of children's congenital heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI).

The hospital, which is at the centre of a row over the future of its children's heart services, said the measure is being taken to allow an internal review to take place following concerns about the number of patient deaths.

It apologised for the disruption and said it would contact the families of all the children affected. Acute cardiac surgery is to continue.

Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of NHS England, told the BBC there was a "constellation" of reasons behind the suspension as checks are made to ensure the unit is operating safely.

He added there had been "rumblings" among the cardiac surgical community for some time that "all was not well" in Leeds.

Sir Bruce: 'Right not to take risks'

But campaigners have criticised the move and its timing, just 24 hours after a High Court judge declared the decision-making process to close the children's unit was "legally flawed".

Sir Bruce said: "Some questions have been raised by the trust's own mortality data and by other information.

"It is important to understand that while this information raises questions, it does not give us answers.

"But it is absolutely right not to take any risks while these matters are being looked into."

The decision to halt surgery for three weeks was made on Thursday after discussions between NHS England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

Greg Mulholland, MP for Leeds North West, said he was "stunned and appalled" by the decision and demanded Sir Bruce resign.

The MP said he understood Sir Bruce and senior CQC members arrived at LGI on Thursday morning unannounced to demand that children's heart surgery cease.

In a statement on his website, Mr Mulholland said: "To have arrived in Leeds and done this, without warning, just one day after the decision to close the Leeds unit was proved in a court of law to have been unlawful beggars belief.

"I believe that Sir Bruce Keogh should resign as he has both authorised this wholly unreasonable and deeply questionable action and also presided over the fundamentally flawed Safe and Sustainable review, which has proved an exercise in how not to effect major change to the NHS."

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will decide LGI's fate

Keith Wakefield, leader of Leeds City Council, said: "Many people will be deeply sceptical about these developments and the question has to be asked why the National Commissioning Board and the Care Quality Commission have raised these issues at this time."

A vigorous campaign has been waged to save children's heart surgery at LGI after the unit was earmarked for closure as part of an NHS plan to reorganise services across England into fewer, more specialised centres.

The campaigners celebrated on Wednesday when the High Court judge quashed part of the NHS consultation process which led to the reorganisation, effectively halting the plan.

Were the children's heart unit at Leeds to be shut down its patients would have to be treated at hospitals in Liverpool and Newcastle instead.

The decision to sacrifice the unit was taken last July by the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) when it chose seven specialist centres for the future delivery of paediatric cardiac surgery in England.

These were at Great Ormond Street and the Evelina Children's Hospital in London, as well as Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, Birmingham Children's Hospital, Alder Hey in Liverpool, the Royal Children's Hospital in Bristol and Southampton General.

The controversial decision, if upheld by the Health Secretary, will mean the closure of the children's heart units at LGI, Glenfield Hospital in Leicester and London's Royal Brompton.

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