Children’s heart surgery is due to restart at Leeds General Infirmary this week, after it was claimed data showed death rates to be higher-than-usual there.
Rates were believed to be double that of other centres, but some health experts have questioned their accuracy.
The Department of Health (DoH) said that the NHS was right to look into the unit’s safety.
A spokesperson said: “We support NHS England and trust in their decision to suspend surgery last week on the basis that there were serious concerns that needed to be investigated.
“If the trust and the regulators are content that these concerns can now be explained or addressed then we would support a joint decision to resume surgery.”
The medical director of NHS England, Sir Bruce Keogh, said the figures were among a “constellation of reasons” to close the unit, with a senior Westminster source saying he was right to ask questions about its safety.
However, doctors and other medical experts said the data had not been verified and wasn’t enough to base a decision on.
Parents also criticised the timing of the unit’s closure, which came 24 hours after a High Court judge ruled that a decision-making process to close the unit as part of an England-wide restructuring of services was “legally flawed”.
Stuart Andrew, the Conservative MP for Pudsey, said there needed to be “some really serious investigating” into the decision that was made.
He said recent events had raised questions about the decision of the NHS to close the Leeds unit for good and concentrate children’s heart surgery in fewer centres.
“We are losing faith in that review process” he said. “Some of these people are the same people on that decision-making body.”