The move follows an investigation by Andrew Parry, consultant in congenital cardiac surgery, concerning even patients at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust in 2023, two of whom have sadly died. An eight case was raised following completion of the review in May 2025.

Dr Magnus Harrison, chief medical officer for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: ‘As soon as we were aware of these concerns, we took swift action and commissioned independent experts to undertake a review of the service and provide us with recommendations for how we can improve.'

Dr Harrison said the trust had begun to address areas for improvement raised by the review, including training more PICU nurses to deliver ECMO and appointing a lead congenital cardiac surgeon for the service who start in January 2026.

‘We have a robust action plan in place to deliver the rest of the recommendations which we are committed to delivering,' he said.

‘We take this very seriously and are fully committed to learning and improving following this review. We have contacted the families involved in this review and offered to meet to discuss the findings of each of their individual cases.'

Dr Harrison said all of the cases involved an individual surgeon with ‘immediate and appropriate action' having been taken to ensure there was no ongoing risk to patients.

‘Our service receives a significant number of highly complex cases and is proud to be recognised as a national leader in paediatric congenital cardiac surgery,' he added.

‘However, there are always opportunities to improve our care and we have already introduced a greater focus on mentorship and opportunities for dual operating across this service which will further develop the technical knowledge, skill and experience of our surgical team.'