SAVE OUR YORKSHIRE HEART UNIT

[groovey74]

HELP SAVE OUR YORKSHIRE HEART UNIT
PLEASE HELP SAVE OUR HEART UNIT
DO IT FOR BARNSLEY AND ALL THE FAMLIES OF YORKSHIRE !!!

the goverment are wanting to merge smaller heart units into larger ones as though they think it will have better care for the children as well as better working conditions for staff but they are not thinking about the long journey us parents would have to travel with sick children my daughter had heart surgery at the lgi heart unit at 5 weeks old and again for a pacemaker 6 month ago and without the care and dedication of the doctors,nurses and surgeons she wouldnt be alive today if we had to travel further afield we would have no support from family and friends as well as the expence of travelling there n also some newborn born with chd need surgery as soon as they are born and to travel that far away either to birmingham or liverpool or newcastle would put an already fragile life at a bigger risk
i hate all the cuts and it effects us all in some way but what has hit close to home just at the min is the cuts the government is having on our lgi leeds heart unit il def be voting labour this year last year i didnt bother voting as i was in hospital with my daughter please is there any way u can help us fight keep this well needed yorkshire heart center open please take alook at my links
www.thepetitionsite.com/6/hel...s-cardiac-lgi/
my daughter is showing on the tv screen on the chsf website
Children's Heart Surgery Fund :: Home

Children's Heart Surgery Fund :: PLEASE LOBBY YOUR MP TO SAVE THE UNIT
amanda from barnsley

This has been on the cards for a long time groovey74, and it is nothing to do with government cuts.

There is a good opinion piece about it here.

The need for surgery to be concentrated in fewer, bigger centres is supported by a huge range of organisations, among them: the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland, the British Congenital Cardiac Association, The Royal College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Paediatric Intensive Care Society and the Children's Heart Federation - an umbrella group of 20 charities which represent families.

This has nothing to do with Tory policy (I'm Labour), consolidation of paediatric heart units would have happened anyway.

Thinning out services is unsafe. If you have too many units, then the surgeons at each unit don't do as many cases per year and are thus de-skilled.

If you have a few units performing lots of procedures, then the surgeons are highly skilled.

Campaign instead for long-stay family accommodation units at each centre.

This isn't to do with government, but the process is completely flawed. The principle is correct - each site must have 4 surgeons completeing around 450-500 surgical cases per year. Some of the smaller units are just not acheiving this.
However, in London they wish to close the Royal Brompton as part of this scheme despite our mortality rates being 0.9% (the national average is 2%) they have 4 surgeons doing around 500 cases per year, and are seen globally as a centre of excellence. This isn't about being safe and substainable, but about hospital politics.

yes it may have been on the cards for a long time but our unit in leeds THE ONLY UNIT FOR THE WHOLE OF YORKSHIRE AND LINCONSHIRE is of excellance and they do have 4 surgeons doing surgery they are dedicated and very skilled in what they do but the the government are not thinking about us as a parent or our children who has to do the travelling some by public transport 100+ miles for surgery with a sick child highlander u dont know what been a heart parent involves obv if u thing we should campain for family accom instead of keeping surgery at our units alot of new borns needing surgery as soon as they are born may not survive the journey

It doesnt matter how good the centre is or if the parents accommodation is amazing,some children are too sick to travel that far in an emergency situation.

i meant to the child who is too ill to make it obviously.
Of course we all want the best care for our children.