- Professor Sir Roger Boyle is the Government’s former head of heart disease
- Surgery at the unit was suspended after data showed high death rates
- Unit was closed for 11 days but re-opened on Wednesday
- But Sir Roger said care at Leeds was still ‘on the edge of acceptability’
By
Anna Hodgekiss
04:52 EST, 12 April 2013
|
04:52 EST, 12 April 2013
Professor Sir Roger Boyle told the BBC that care at the centre at the Leeds children’s heart unit was ‘on the edge of acceptability’
The Government’s former head of heart disease says he would not send his daughter for treatment at Leeds General Infirmary’s child cardiac unit, despite it reopening earlier this week.
Professor Sir Roger Boyle told the BBC that care at the centre was ‘on the edge of acceptability’.
Surgery at the hospital was suspended at the end of last month after NHS England said it had ‘serious concerns’ over data suggesting the unit had a death rate double that of other centres. It resumed again on Wednesday.
Sir Roger, director of the National Institute for Clinical Outcomes Research, which oversees NHS mortality data, said that despite safety assurances, a comprehensive analysis of data at Leeds General Infirmary called for the children’s cardiac unit to remain under supervision.
He told the BBC: ‘We find they’re just on the edge of what we call an alert. In other words, showing that they were right on the edge of acceptability.’
He added that he would not send his children to Leeds. ‘I would go somewhere else,’ he said. ‘I would go to Newcastle.’
Yesterday it emerged that 10 sick children have had to be transferred up to 120 miles during the suspension of surgery, to units such as Birmingham, Alder Hey in Liverpool, Newcastle and Leicester.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said it has comparable rates to all other centres and there should be no concern.
The children’s heart surgery unit was closed for 11 days after NHS England’s medical director, Sir Bruce Keogh, suspended procedures.
He said the mortality figures
were among a ‘constellation of reasons’ behind the suspension and there
were ‘rumblings’ among the cardiac surgical community for some time that
‘all was not well’ in Leeds.
There were also suspicions that the LGI was not referring complex cases
on to other centres with better expertise – such as the Freeman Hospital
in Newcastle.
The mortality data had been leaked by
Sir Roger – director of the National Institute of Clinical Outcomes
Research, which oversees mortality figures across the NHS – the night
before last month’s suspension, the BBC reported.
But the unit re-opened on Wednesday after NHS England said it had been assured about the quality of surgery and staffing.
But speaking
to BBC Radio 4?s The Report, Sir Roger – the Department of Health’s
former National Director for Heart Disease – said he still had little
confidence in the unit.
Children’s heart surgery at the hospital was suspended at the end of last month after data showed the unit had a death rate double that of other centres. It re-opened again on Wednesday
He said: ‘I have a young daughter [and] I would go somewhere else. I would go to Newcastle.’
He added that despite safety assurances, the figures suggested that the unit remain under supervision.Â
Figures released to the BBC also found that Leeds was ‘very close to the “alert†threshold’. Two other units – Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust – are also said to be close to this threshold.
A spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust said: ‘On Monday we announced that we were reopening the children’s heart unit at Leeds General Infirmary having had the quality of our service independently verified by the Care Quality Commission, NHS England and the NHS Trust Development Authority following a rapid review process which took place over the weekend.
“All partners were fully in agreement that this was the correct course of action to take and surgery has now resumed.
‘This was publicly reconfirmed at a meeting of councillors held in Leeds on Wednesday when the deputy medical director of NHS England reaffirmed the view that all the child heart surgery units in England, including Leeds, are safe to undertake surgery.’
Sharon Cheng, of Save Our Surgery which campaigned for surgery to be resumed at Leeds, added that the unit would not be operating if there were any concerns whatsoever about mortality rates.
The Report will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday, 18 April at 8pm.
THE LONG-RUNNING BATTLE TO KEEP HEART SURGERY AT LEEDS
Leeds General Infirmary is at the centre of a long-running row over the future of children’s heart services at the hospital.
The NHS announced last July it wanted to close three units and keep seven open, the idea being to concentrate specialist services in fewer but larger centres that would give a higher quality of care for child heart patients.
Those currently chosen to stay open are at Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Southampton and two London centres.Facing closure are units at Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital, London’s Royal Brompton and the Leeds site.
This means patients in Yorkshire would be being forced to travel to Liverpool or Newcastle for treatment – a 150 or 200-mile round trip respectively.
There is huge support for keeping child heart surgery in the Yorkshire and nearly 600,000 people signed a petition against closure of the unit, organised by the group Save Our Surgery (SOS).
Last month, a High Court judge derailed plans to close the unit because of the ‘secretive’ approach of NHS chiefs.
Mrs Justice Davies backed claims by SOS that the consultation process to decide which units should be axed was unfair because details of how a panel of experts marked individual hospitals were kept secret.Last month, she ruled the decision was ‘unfair and legally flawed’.
But within 24 hours, Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of NHS England, had travelled to Leeds to suspend congenital heart surgery after data emerged suggesting it had a death rate twice the national average.
He said the figures were among a ‘constellation of reasons’ behind the suspension.
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prospecting , and i dare say he will be rewarded
buckbe
,
cardiff, United Kingdom,
12/4/2013 11:35
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What would anyone expect this yes man to say. The conspiracy against the Leeds centre is unlikely to go away and the end result will be closure, we all know that. What this government wants, this government gets.
danleno
,
Hull UK,
12/4/2013 11:31
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Says it all – shut the place and retrain or sack the surgeons.
Mike
,
York, United Kingdom,
12/4/2013 11:29
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The government are absolutely determined to shut this unit down, one way or another. Their High Court appeal failed, their convenient discovery of ‘worrying mortality rates’ was found to be completely skewed and was rejected, so now they have wheeled out an ex-Gov mouthpiece to undermine public confidence in the unit. Disgusting.
Alice in Wonderland
,
Devon,
12/4/2013 11:29
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I wouldn’t advise anybody to have surgery at Leeds General Infirmary, it is a dirty hospital and the care afterwards is abysmal.
cate1
,
Dorchester, United Kingdom,
12/4/2013 11:28
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well what else he must have been given somthing for that remark
bigrigg
,
leeds,
12/4/2013 11:27
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I heard that a PCT CEO refused to allow her husband diagnosed with MS to be treated by the services of her own PCT. She insisted that he be sent to a MS centre of excellence in London. So for people inside the NHS to choose health services elsewhere seems to be nothing new.
PierrePierpont
,
HW, United Kingdom,
12/4/2013 11:26
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This is all very worrying to me. Someone must be telling porkies. The data CANNOT both support the Unit but also be the reason for its closure/suspension?. Surgeons mortality rates have been public knowledge for years now. If the mortality rate for certain procedures is twice the national average then surely this would have been spotted ages ago, why wasnt something done then?. Are the Leeds based parents being told the truth?. Its all highly irregular in my opinion. If the head of NICE cannot assure people of the performance of the LGI in chilrens heart surgery, and would prefer his own child to go elsewhere, what must less knowledgable people now be thinking. There must be some very worried parents out there, not to say managers and healthcare staff at the LGI. And of course the poor children who are the ones suffering even more because of all this.
Iomhar
,
Newcastle,
12/4/2013 11:22
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There seem to be a lot of agendas and shady things going on here, perhaps lies even. I don’t know but just so grateful my child is healthy. How awful for the children and families caught in the middle.
Idontknow
,
Suffolk,
12/4/2013 11:21
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There seem to be a lot of agendas and shady things going on here, perhaps lies even. I don’t know but just so grateful my child is healthy. How awful for the children and families caught in the middle.
Idontknow
,
Suffolk,
12/4/2013 11:21
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