Closing Southampton cardiac unit will cost children’s lives

Thursday 28th April 2011, 2:29PM BST.

Harry Shields MORE children will die if paediatric heart surgery at Southampton General Hospital is stopped.

That is the message from a 20-year-old who was saved by surgeons at the hospital when he was a child.

Harry Shields (pictured) was born eight weeks premature with a serious heart defect, which pumped blood straight into his lungs.

He had initially been given just two hours to live, but the determination and skill of staff at the Southampton children’s cardiac unit helped him to defy the odds and survive.

Now, the former Elizabeth College student is getting behind the Have a Heart Campaign, which was launched by the Southern Daily Echo to save the unit.

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View more: Cardiac Unit news, Children's Cardiac Unit news, Health news.

1
Ted

May 1, 2011 at 12:05 pm

It is clear that some, perhaps many, people have misunderstood the plan to rationalise the provision of children’s heart surgery in UK. It is not proposed to do away with this service but to make it even more effective by concentrating on centres of excellence. This will mean the closing of at least two existing centres but their workload will be taken over by other locations.
Harry would have received just as good, if not better, treatment in one of the remaining cardiac units.

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2
Al West

May 3, 2011 at 2:02 pm

I don’t think it is misunderstood at all. The Southampton Unit covers a huge area and when it closes the area around and below the M4 will only be covered by Bristol and London Units.

Southampton is also regarded as _the_ centre of excellence outside of London. Had the unit in Southampton not been in service then Harry would not have made it in time to any other unit by any means including air ambulance.

Consolidation does not necessarily bring with it efficiency or a higher quality of service. I think in this case it is better that one of the best children’s cardiac units in the world is left as is.

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