PARENTS across the region celebrated last year when proposals to close the children’s heart surgery unit in Leeds were shelved pending a review.

What they must be feeling today, following the publication of a damning report into care at the unit, is anyone’s guess.

To be fair, the findings of a report commissioned by NHS England published yesterday did not raise concerns about the medical and surgical care of child patients themselves. These are safe and “in line with standard practice,” the report said.

But both NHS England and the Leeds Teaching Hospital have been forced to apologise after the report revealed a catalogue of failings in the way the unit treated families.

One woman told how she was put under pressure to have an abortion; another was sterilised unnecessarily after being wrongly told any future babies would have a heart condition. One baby had pneumonia after her operation, but her parents weren’t told for a week.These are examples of arrogance and insensitivity towards families which are utterly unacceptable within the modern NHS.

The review into the long-term future of child heart surgery in the UK – and so into the future of this particular unit – is due to be completed this summer.

In the past, we have always backed parents who want the Leeds unit kept open.

But clearly, if it is to stay open, a great deal of improvement must be made.