Leeds infirmary: 'Investigation needed'

Leeds General Infirmary have announced that they will re-open their children's heart surgery unit next week.

Only last week the unit was closed because there were concerns about its safety.

The medical director of the NHS Sir Bruce Keogh said he had seen figures suggesting that its death rates were twice the national average.

Ann Keatley Clarke, chief executive of The Children's Heart Federation, told the Today programme's Sarah Montague, that "it's about morbidity... we are concerned less about mortality".

She added that parents who's children are in care are "extremely frightened about speaking out" because they feared the repercussions.

Gregory Mulholland, a Liberal Democrat MP, accused Ms Keatley Clarke of abusing her position and said that she had an agenda.

He said that "we still... haven't had a proper justification or full explanation" for the decision to shut down surgery.

"We must now have an investigation. It is time for the secretary of state to step in," he added.

"The figures do not justify the decision that Sir Bruce Keogh took that day."

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday 5 April 2013.