The partnership with Southampton University Hospitals Trust has increased the number of operations being carried out and puts Southampton within easy reach of the new requirements being introduced for centres that perform children's heart surgery in England.

The national Safe and Sustainable review of childrens heart surgery services recommends that children’s heart surgery should only be provided in a smaller number of larger centres to achieve the best outcomes for children.

Since the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford suspended children’s heart surgery in February last year, the majority of children needing heart operations and other invasive cardiology procedures have been going to Southampton for treatment.

This arrangement has worked well for Oxford's patients and has increased the number of patients being treated in the Southampton centre, which needs to be performing at least 400 operations every year to meet the requirements to be one of new larger centres.

An independent report by Professor Sir Ian Kennedy ranked Southampton as the highest quality centre outside London and described its service as exemplary in three key areas. Despite this, the review has decided to ask the public later this month to consider whether Southampton should remain open in the future.

In a four month period of public consultation, four options will be presented and the public, patients and staff will be asked which centres they think should remain open.  One of the options includes Southampton. Oxford is not included in any option because the Safe and Sustainable review team felt that, as one of the smallest centres in the country, it had the least chance of achieving the new standards being set.

Southampton and Oxford are working together in a clinical network to create a comprehensive and high quality service for children with heart disease in the South of England, whilst ensuring that families in all areas have access to excellent local care.

The Safe and Sustainable review has focused on cardiac surgery, but surgery is only one part of a life-long journey of care for patients who come under the cardiac teams. Both hospitals consider it important that patients have access to the other aspects of their care – like outpatients appointments – as close to home as possible.

Mark Hackett, Chief Executive of Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust said:

"The results we have achieved in Southampton over the last 40 years speak for themselves and we are delighted that the Kennedy report has supported the confidence our patients and families have always had in the high quality of our service.

"However, we remain concerned that the review has not yet guaranteed the future of the  country's leading centre outside London, and it is now important that the public supports us during this period of consultation.

"The Southampton-Oxford clinical network demonstrates that our organisations have already understood and acted on the principles of Safe and Sustainable in this area."

Sir Jonathan Michael, Chief Executive of the Oxford Radcliffe hospitals NHS Trust said:

"A partnership between Oxford and Southampton will ensure that children and families in the areas we serve receive the best treatment available. We believe that it is in the best interests of patients that services are preserved as locally as possible and it is important to remember that surgery is only one part of the treatment of children who often have complex needs.

"The networking arrangement that is working so successfully with Southampton is a innovative opportunity to provide excellent care in a way that fulfils the aims of the Safe and Sustainable review while preserving the wishes of many families that they access the majority of the care for their children as close to home as possible."

Notes

• Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust has four children's heart surgeons (the fourth surgeon is a new appointment and starts with the Trust in July 2011). There are seven paediatric cardiologists in the service which involves more than 400 staff in total. Oxford clinicians have been working in Southampton for several months and the system has worked well for patients.
• During 2010, Southampton performed 404 congenital heart surgery procedures, 338 of them were in children aged 16 or under.  In February 2010 when surgery was suspended in Oxford, the majority of operations for its patients were performed in Southampton.
• The Kennedy Report ranked Southampton as the leading centre outside London. It described the service as exemplary in the following areas: management of paediatric intensive care; supporting parents with information and choice; and training and innovation
• The 2003 Paediatric and Congenital Cardiac Services Review stated that "The overwhelming impression of the Southampton service was that it represents a model of what services for children and adults with heart disease should offer."
• Both the Oxford and Southampton hospitals provide a wide range of services. Patients born with heart disease often have complex health needs and the co-location of services like maternity, specialist children's services and paediatric intensive care, as well as the provision of adult cardiac services all on one site – ensures a more joined-up service for patients and a smoother transition to adult care.
• The clinical teams at Oxford and Southampton have been working closely to develop proposals for a network of care across the South of England that provides a more sustainable paediatric cardiac surgical service in line with the aims of Safe and Sustainable, while at the same time maximising the benefits from the co-location of the interdependent services that are so often needed by this group of patients who are born with heart defects.

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Contact: Heather Barnett, ORH Media and Communications Unit
Contact Details: 01865 231471 /  mediaoffice@orh.nhs.uk|