MP calls for Sir Bruce Keogh to apologise for stopping children's heart surgery in Leeds

The review has confirmed that the Leeds Children's Heart Unit is safe and was safe all along, which confirms that NHS England were wrong to suspend surgery there last year. It is time for Sir Bruce Keogh to have the courage to admit this and to apologise. Apart from the turmoil that his decision caused for the medical staff and the families of children awaiting surgery, the fact remains that stopping surgery at a safe unit, as it was and is, puts children at greater risk.

It is also important that each and every complaint in any area of the NHS must be listened to and dealt with and as an MP I have and will continue to support people who feel they have not had adequate care. This is a different matter from the issue of safety, however, and NHS England must have and stick to a clear criteria for stopping surgery in any hospital and a proper process for doing so. In this case, they failed on both counts and made a knee jerk decision based on unverified, and as we discovered incomplete, data.

NHS England must therefore review how and why they got it wrong in Leeds and how they can learn lessons to ensure they don't do so again elsewhere.

Now this review has been published, I hope the Leeds Children's Heart Unit can get on with its life saving work and, as with all parts of the NHS, continue to strive to ensure that all patients feel they are getting the best care possible. The surgery and the unit can now operate with the endorsement of NHS England and the Department for Health and the confidence that everyone knows it is safe and sustainable.