Sir Bruce Keogh admits that 'inaccurate data' led him to suspend children's heart surgery
Britain’s most senior doctor is under renewed pressure after he admitted that he “acted on inaccurate data” when he suspended operations at a children’s heart unit in Leeds.
All operations were stopped just before Easter at the centre at Leeds General
Infirmary after Sir Bruce Keogh said an analysis suggested its death rates
were twice as high as those of other units.
As a result, twelve children had heart surgery delayed, or were sent to
hospitals further away, as were women in labour whose babies were at risk of
heart conditions.
There was an immediate backlash from campaigners and MPs, who were suspicious
about the claims and the timing of the disclosures.
It subsequently emerged that death rates were within a normal range for the
type of operations being carried out at the hospital and it was this week
announced that surgery would resume in the unit.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Sir Bruce admitted that the
mortality figures were “not right” but denied that he had made a mistake.
He admitted that the decision to suspend operations at the hospital was taken
because people in the NHS had previously “prevaricated” over mortality data
in the case of the Mid Staffordshire scandal, where up to 1,200 patients
died needlessly.
Sir Bruce said: “The data had shown a higher mortality but that data was based on information submitted by the hospital itself.
"Leeds had not submitted good data to the National Audit which is used for monitoring the quality of children's heart surgery.
"To give you an example, in order to take case mix into account so that we compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges, one of the simple things you need is that you need to know the weight of a baby.
"A 10-day-old baby weighs much more than a one-day-old baby but the weight was missing in 35 per cent of cases. But in all the other units of the country the amount of missing data in that area was 0 per cent to 1.4 per cent so that data was very poor quality.”
He added: “We have had two significant public inquiries - one into children's heart surgery in Bristol and more recently into events at Mid Staffordshire, both of those costing over £10 million.
"We have learnt from both of those a particular set of lessons and that is people have argued and prevaricated over data to try and decide what it means, whether it is accurate and whether people they should do anything and they have hesitated over action.
"So what I was putting to the trust was that, given the constellation of things were very serious, the most sensible thing to do in everybody's interests, not only the babies and parents, was to halt the operations until we got to the bottom of it."
Asked whether or not he made a mistake Sir Bruce replied: “No, certainly not.”
Sir Bruce was then asked if he “acted on inaccurate date” and he replied: “Indeed I did.”
The centre in Leeds had been earmarked for permanent closure following a nationwide review of children's cardiac services in England.
But campaigners successfully fought the ruling in the High Court only to see NHS England suspend surgery because of concerns about fatality rates at the centre, provoking anger and surprise among those who wanted to see the unit remain open.
Sir Bruce said: “The data had shown a higher mortality but that data was based on information submitted by the hospital itself.
"Leeds had not submitted good data to the National Audit which is used for monitoring the quality of children's heart surgery.
"To give you an example, in order to take case mix into account so that we compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges, one of the simple things you need is that you need to know the weight of a baby.
"A 10-day-old baby weighs much more than a one-day-old baby but the weight was missing in 35 per cent of cases. But in all the other units of the country the amount of missing data in that area was 0 per cent to 1.4 per cent so that data was very poor quality.”
He added: “We have had two significant public inquiries - one into children's heart surgery in Bristol and more recently into events at Mid Staffordshire, both of those costing over £10 million.
"We have learnt from both of those a particular set of lessons and that is people have argued and prevaricated over data to try and decide what it means, whether it is accurate and whether people they should do anything and they have hesitated over action.
"So what I was putting to the trust was that, given the constellation of things were very serious, the most sensible thing to do in everybody's interests, not only the babies and parents, was to halt the operations until we got to the bottom of it."
Asked whether or not he made a mistake Sir Bruce replied: “No, certainly not.”
Sir Bruce was then asked if he “acted on inaccurate date” and he replied: “Indeed I did.”
The centre in Leeds had been earmarked for permanent closure following a nationwide review of children's cardiac services in England.
But campaigners successfully fought the ruling in the High Court only to see NHS England suspend surgery because of concerns about fatality rates at the centre, provoking anger and surprise among those who wanted to see the unit remain open.
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