Apologies for 16 families let down by children's heart surgery unit

A children's heart surgery centre that was temporarily closed last year due to fears over mortality rates is safe according to a review of its services.

But the report into paediatric cardiology at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) outlined the experiences of 16 families who complained of poor care at the unit, prompting apologies from both NHS England and the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital.

One mother described how she felt pressurised into having an abortion, which was against her Muslim beliefs. Others complained about a lack of compassion following the death of their child.

NHS England said in its overview of the report: "We conclude that these families did not get the level of care or service that they deserved and for this we are truly sorry."

Operations at the LGI unit were suspended for more than a week last year after NHS England raised concerns about data on death rates at the centre.

The move provoked huge anger and debate, especially as parents and clinicians from the unit linked it to the ongoing controversy about which children's heart surgery units were to be closed as part of a nationwide rationalisation of the service.

Surgery resumed on April 10 last year and NHS England announced it was implementing the full review that reported.

The report was in two parts. The first was a statistical analysis of mortality rates, focussing on the 35 children who died following surgery at the unit from 2009 to March last year.

This review concluded: "Within the context and remit of this review, the team found that the clinical management of the cases examined demonstrated medical and surgical care to be in line with standard practice."

But a second part of the report examined the experiences of 16 families who felt they had been let down by the unit, prompting six to have their child's treatment transferred to another centre.

Last summer, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt ordered NHS officials to re-evaluate the streamlining of children's heart surgery services after the decision to close three units, including the one at the LGI, was deemed to be flawed.

The Safe and Sustainable Review's proposals to shut the units in Leeds, Leicester and the Royal Brompton in west London ''cannot go ahead in their current form'', Mr Hunt said at the time.

The £6 million review into streamlining paediatric cardiac surgery in England into fewer, more specialist centres was heavily criticised and campaigners from Leeds fought ferociously against the closure of the units.

Two separate legal challenges were launched against its process, including the first-ever case of an NHS organisation taking legal action against another.

The LGI unit cares for more than 10,000 children every year and performs more than 800 operations or intervention procedures, the trust said.