UNUSUALLY high death rates at three children’s heart surgery centres could affect the outcome of an inquiry that will settle the fate of paediatric cardiac operations in Oxford.

Parents and staff in Oxford will have to wait until at least the spring to learn whether paediatric cardiac surgery can ever be resumed at Oxford.

The delay has been announced after a national inquiry into the country’s 11 specialist children’s heart units revealed it needed to analyse “unexpectedly high” mortality figures in London, Leeds and Leicester.

Operations are still suspended at the child heart unit at Oxford’s John Radcliffe following a separate inquiry into four baby deaths.

But some Oxford families are calling for the resumption of children’s heart surgery at Oxford’s John Radcliffe, claiming the issues and figures behind the suspension of services at Oxford “need to be viewed in a new light”.

The review, set up by the Government to decide whether some of the country’s paediatric heart surgery centres should be shut and larger centres of excellence created, had been expected to submit recommendations next month.

Sir Jonathan Michael, chief executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the JR, said: “We welcome the decision to look more closely at the statistical analysis of mortality figures, although the delay it causes in the timetable for formal public consultation is unfortunate.”

Local families who have campaigned to save children’s heart surgery services at the JR said they were shocked by the postponement.

As one of the smallest centres, the Oxford unit is widely viewed as one of the units most likely to close.

The suspension of children’s cardiac surgery in February, following four deaths, and the findings of a resulting inquiry that criticised procedures, have added to doubts about the Oxford unit’s future.

The report into the baby deaths cleared surgeon Caner Salih and the hospital of any error of judgment or wrongdoing.

But the independent review found that there were problems with Mr Salih’s induction and mentoring after he began working at the hospital. He has since left the trust, leaving just one surgeon working at the unit.

Campaigners said they believed the examination of mortality rates at other centres could be significant.

One of them, Maria Crocker, said: “I would prefer to get the recommendations of the inquiry sooner rather than later. But I am pleased that they are going to look carefully at other centres with high mortality rates.”

Mrs Crocker, of Berinsfield, who says the life of her eight-year-old son, David, was saved by the Oxford unit, said: “In the light of what we are now hearing about high mortality rates elsewhere, they should now reconsider whether services at Oxford should remain shut.”

However, Sir Jonathan Michael said: “The ORH has acknowledged that it would not be right to restart children’s heart surgery with one surgeon. Until the national safe and sustainable review is completed, we are not in a position to make any decisions about taking on a new children’s heart surgeon.”

Dr Martin Ashton Key, from the team that is conducting the safe and sustainable review, said that there were no grounds for “immediate safety concerns” about any centres operating at present.

But he added: “However, so that we can absolutely reassure the public that the national review has explored the reasons behind the higher than expected mortality rate reported at the three centres during the period 2000-2008, we will oversee further reviews of the caseloads at Leeds General Infirmary, Glenfield Hospital in Leicester and the Evelina Children’s Hospital in London.”

Bicester mother Yvonne Thomas, a member of the campaign to save the Oxford unit, expressed disappointment that families had not been told about the delay.

She said: “I had not heard about this. But perhaps it will give us longer to put our case and keep up the fight. We hope they will use the extra time to listen to people.”