Video: Joy and relief as children’s heart surgery resumes in Leeds

Calls have been made for an investigation into why the decision was taken to suspend services last week. All operations at the unit were halted last Thursday after NHS figures suggested the unit had a death rate double that of other centres.

But a decision to work together over the weekend to reopen the unit early next week was reached at a summit between Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, NHS England and other partners late last night.

A trust spokesman said: “Following a productive multi-agency meeting to review the decision to suspend children’s cardiac surgery at Leeds General Infirmary, agreement was reached to work together to restart surgery on the site early next week subject to independent assurance of concerns raised.”

Maggie Boyle, chief executive of the trust, said she was “extremely confident” the service was safe and effective and NHS England said the organisation would support the safe reopening at the earliest opportunity.

A number of people, including parents of children treated at the unit, MPs and campaigners, have welcomed the news but said questions now needed to be answered.Greg Mulholland, Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West, called on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to launch an investigation.

He said figures cited as evidence to support the suspension were incomplete and should never have been released.

After the closure, medical bodies, doctors and other experts questioned the accuracy of the data, which they said was unverified and not fit to base such a decision on.

Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of NHS England, said the figures were among a “constellation of reasons” the decision was made.

Mr Mulholland raised serious concerns over the “conduct and judgment” of Sir Bruce and Professor Sir Roger Boyle, director of the Nicor, which oversees cardiovascular mortality data across the NHS.

He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “We now need an investigation so we can get to the bottom of this decision, why it was taken, and we then need to understand that.”

Stuart Andrew, Conservative MP for Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough, said he hoped the parliamentary Health Select Committee would look at “whether of not the right processes were made”.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said Mr Hunt was in support of the decision to reopen the unit.

Jon Arnold, whose daughter Zoe underwent life-saving heart surgery at the unit in 2007 when she was three weeks old, said the news was a relief but added that families would have questions about the closure.

He said: “It was difficult to understand as a parent how they could have shut the ward so swiftly on the basis of unverified data. It left parents feeling very confused about what to believe and what was best for their child.

“Once the unit is reopened then a lot of the families will have a lot of questions that need to be answered about the manner in which it closed.”

Jo Lancaster, whose six-year-old son Toby has undergone two operations on his heart in Leeds, said she was “absolutely thrilled” that the unit was to reopen.

She said: “It’s such a relief that it’s reopened. We were never in any doubt that Leeds was safe.”

Ms Lancaster, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, said she hoped Toby would have any future operations in Leeds.

“I wouldn’t feel safe taking him anywhere else,” she said.

Parents had criticised the timing of the unit’s suspension, which came just 24 hours after a High Court judge ruled that a decision-making process to close it as part of an England-wide reorganisation of services was “legally flawed”.

Sharon Cheng, of the Save Our Surgery group, which ran the campaign to save children’s heart surgery at the LGI, said: “Save Our Surgery welcomes the announcement that the various parties involved hope to resume children’s cardiac surgery at the Leeds General Infirmary early next week.

“The last week’s investigations and discussions have indicated that standards at the unit are safe - we now wait for the final independent assurance so that we can move ahead.”We are asking that surgery be resumed as early as possible next week so that patients and families, who have been so worried through this suspension period, can be reassured that the unit is operating safely, and that planned treatments will be able to proceed.

“Many children are reliant on the Leeds unit for urgent or on-going treatment, so the sooner normal service can be resumed, the better.”

Keith Wakefield, leader of Leeds City Council, said it was right to seek extra reassurance but he hoped the unit could get back to “providing world-class healthcare and saving lives” next week.

He said: “The safety of the very poorly children being treated at the LGI is my paramount concern. I therefore welcome the reassurance that has been provided in response to concerns raised last week, which is enabling surgery to resume.”

But Anne Keatley-Clarke, chief executive of the Children’s Heart Federation, said affected families were still “very worried” about their children and were frightened about raising concerns.

She added that they were advising some parents to contact police after threats were made.

Mr Mulholland said Ms Keatley-Clarke was making “inflammatory allegations” and had “abused her position”.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “The key consideration must always be patient safety. We support NHS England and the trust in their decision to suspend surgery last week on the basis that there were serious concerns that needed to be investigated.

“If the trust and the regulators are content that these concerns can now be explained or addressed then we would support a joint decision to resume surgery.”

Mr Mulholland, who has been closely involved in the campaign to resume surgery at the unit, said: “It’s obviously a huge relief to everyone involved - the staff and particularly the families who have been in turmoil since the decision was made.

“It’s good news but obviously there are questions that need to be answered and that’s why I’ve called for an investigation by the Secretary of State for Health, who now needs to step in.

“I think the whole thing has been handled shambolically. One minute we’ve been told surgery will start, the next minute it won’t and so on.

“I’m afraid the communication from NHS England has been woeful and the handling has been deeply questionable, and indeed the motivation behind the decision in the first place is something that I think people want to get to the bottom of.”