THE results of an independent review into infant deaths at the John Radcliffe Hospital will be presented at a public meeting in July.

The review follows the deaths of four children who had heart operations at the hospital.

A review team will present the report to the South Central Strategic Health Authority (SHA) at the July 29 meeting.

The team is chaired by Dr Bill Kirkup, previously Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, and comprises clinicians and other specialists drawn nationally. The panel will review the paediatric cardiac surgical services from January 2009 until the service was suspended in February 2010.

It will consider all paediatric deaths during this time, provide a detailed analysis of why deaths occurred, and a comprehensive view of the care and treatment of each case.

Katherine Fenton, South Central SHA director of Clinical Standards, said: “We have commissioned this independent review to ensure that all aspects of the paediatric cardiac surgery service at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust are thoroughly examined.”

A spokesman for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said it was compiling information for the review.

She added: “Our other cardiac services for children continue as normal, but if patients need surgery as part of ongoing treatment, the surgery will take place at one of the other specialist paediatric cardiac centres.”