I'm a mum of a child with a life threatening heart condition & we currently receive care at the Southampton Children's cardiac Centre. A current review proposes to reduce the number of centres doing surgery from 11 to just 6 or 7. The proposed configuration options have been announced by the JCPCT (Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts, there are 4 possible options to go out to public consultation & my centre in Southampton is only named in 1 of the options! This is a complete & utter scandal as Southampton came 2nd in the overall ratings of the 11 centres! Why isn't Southampton in all four options? Should we be keeping the best centres & working on raising the quality in any of the other centres they need to keep just because of their location? Bristol's centre is in all 4 options but they came 6th! These review proposals are not offering us parents a quality option it is more about the location of the centre! I know you will have a large membership of mum's from in & around London & they too will be affected, the Brompton children's cardiac unit is going to be merged in to the other 2 remaining centres at Great Ormond Street & The Evelina.
We want the best quality care for our children not an option that focuses on geography! If Southampton isn't designated a Surgical Centre I would have to take my son to a centre that didn't score as well so how can that be improving the service for us???