Southampton child heart hospital public meetings

The unit has been rated as the second best in the country

Supporters of Southampton General Hospital children's heart surgery unit have aired their concerns at public meetings with the Department of Health.

The two meetings at Southampton Guildhall follow NHS review proposals to centralise children's heart surgery at specialist centres.

Three of four of the review's options would see the permanent closure of the Ocean Ward at Southampton General.

Supporters of the unit also held a rally at the guildhall.

The NHS Safe and Sustainable review, set up by the National Specialised Commissioning Group, which is in charge of child heart units, recommended a minimum of four surgeons per heart surgery unit. It means at least four hospitals will stop doing operations.

Leslie Hamilton, a paediatric cardiac consultant who sits on the steering group advising the decision-making panel, said: "Nobody's questioning the fact Southampton is a good unit.

"Our real concern is the fact the surgeons in the country are spread too thinly over 11 units. We believe the best way is to concentrate those surgeons in larger centres working in bigger teams," he added.

'World class'

In total there are about 30 child heart surgeons across England who carry out 3,600 operations each year on children in England and Wales.

Southampton's Ocean Ward has been rated as the best outside London and carried out more than 330 operations in the last year.

Sam Prior, of Locks Heath near Southampton, whose nine-year-old son, Aaron, has been a regular visitor to the Southampton unit, said: "It would be preposterous for the NHS to decommission the second best unit in the country.

"Over 30 years Southampton has built up a world class excellent service, it would take a long time for other centres to get to that stage.

"If the unit closed it would be to the detriment of the whole national service."

Opponents also say if Southampton closed, patients on the Isle of Wight would have to travel even longer than the maximum three hours to a specialist unit which the review recommends.

The public consultation runs until 1 July and the final decision will be made in the autumn.

The four options are to keep units open at either:

• Newcastle, Liverpool, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol plus two in London

• Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton plus two in London

• Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol plus two in London

• Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham plus two in London