17.04.13
Sir Roger Boyle steps down from NICOR
Sir Roger Boyle has resigned as director of the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR).
He had raised concerns about the child heart surgery unit at Leeds General Infirmary with mortality data that led to suspension of operations on March 28. It was just a day after campaign group Save Our Surgery had won a judicial review against the unit’s permanent closure planned by the Safe and Sustainable review.
Surgery began a phased resumption last week, following an 11-day review of safety and quality at the unit. NHS England judged it to be clinically safe, with an appropriate number of staff available for duty at the hospital.
Sir Roger Boyle said that he would not want his daughter treated at the hospital – comments which led to him being taken off the Safe and Sustainable review team, which is considering the reconfiguration of surgery in England.
On Monday health secretary Jeremy Hunt said Sir Roger Boyle would no longer be an advisor to the review into child heart surgery.
“He did the right thing in informing Sir Bruce (Keogh, NHS England Medical Director) about his concerns over Leeds mortality data.
“However it is the view of Sir Bruce, with which I fully concur, his comments to the media on April 11 could be seen as pre-judging any future conclusions made by that review and so it is right he plays no further role in its deliberations.”
Sharon Cheng of Save Our Surgery (SOS) called Sir Roger Boyle’s comments “unhelpful, inflammatory and unfounded”.
She added: “For some time now, we have questioned Sir Roger’s objectivity. By his actions, he has proved what we have always claimed, that the whole Safe & Sustainable Review was pre-determined. Sir Roger and his colleagues at NHS Specialised Services, which ran the Review, wanted Leeds closed as that is the only way they could sustain Newcastle where they have pumped hugely disproportionate amounts of money.
“Sir Roger has shown his clear bias and completely discredited the Safe and Sustainable process, and he should be removed from any further involvement with the re-configuration of children’s heart surgery units.”
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