Helen Laverty is intimately involved in the campaign to save the Southampton Children’s Heart Surgery Unit. She believes that children on the Isle of Wight will be hugely disadvantaged if the unit closes. In her own words. Ed
The NHS Safe and Sustainable Review of Children’s Congenital Cardiac Services in the UK has resulted in a possible four options for the future, A, B, C and D.
All options will result in the closure of some units across the country with the ultimate aim being fewer more specialised units providing a safer and sustainable service.
Misleading data puts Isle of Wight children at risk
Whilst the review is welcomed and accepted as necessary, the fact that misleading and inaccurate data has been used to produce documentation and formulate the four options puts children on The Isle of Wight at risk. The gravity and urgency of this situation must not be ignored by Island residents.
All children on The Island with heart problems are referred to Southampton. The likely closure of the Southampton Unit will result in extreme hardship and almost certainly the avoidable deaths of both newborn and existing patients.
Children must have ‘excellent’ care
The NHS Safe and Sustainable website states “Safe, sustainable and world class. Not ordinary, OK or just good enough. Children and young people who need surgery must have excellent care.” as the primary aim of the review. The following facts make a mockery of the above statement;
- Isle of Wight data and statistics have been specifically excluded from consultation documentation, seemingly because we are separate from the mainland.
- Travelling and retrieval times of patients on the Isle of Wight have been excluded from the safe and sustainable review’s source information (produced by KPMG), which has resulted in Southampton being put forward in only 1 of 4 options for the future (option B).
- The review’s board OWN assessment ranks Southampton as the 2nd best of 11 such units, yet other units rated far lower down the scale appear to have been given an illogical preference and appear in all 4 options.
- It is clear that key personnel and decision makers are not communicating effectively within this process. Crucial information and inaccuracies which have come to light since the start of this process are being blindly ignored.
- According to the reviews own source information the Isle of Wight is a UK “hotspot” for Children’s Cardiac Referrals and Surgery making the closure of Southampton even more illogical.
- The cost and logistics of travel for Island residents to either London or Bristol (options A, C and D) will effectively result in parents and patients having to face some of the toughest of times without the vital support network of friends and family around them. Present arrangements make this difficult at the best of times, the loss of the Southampton Unit will make it impossible.
Personal experience of need for unit
As the parent of Nancy Laverty, age 2½ who was born at, and is under the ongoing care of, the excellent Southampton Unit, I demand and expect reconsideration and further fact finding be undertaken BEFORE the review board make ANY final decisions which may affect the quality of life for my child, other children and children yet to be born on The Isle of Wight.
I question any decision based on inaccuracies and the apparent mismanagement of this public consultation process.
Show your support with just a signature
If you want to help, why not download a copy of the petition from the Daily Echo, who are putting a huge amount of effort behind the campaign, and help get as many signatures as possible.
