A MEETING to discuss the possible end of children’s heart operations at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital will be held on Tuesday.

The NHS management board is looking into how children’s heart surgery is carried out in the UK. Of the 11 hospitals that carry out paediatric surgery, including the Oxford unit, it plans to close half.

Services at the unit have been suspended following the deaths of four children, while a separate investigation is carried out.

But, even before the suspension of services in the spring, the Oxford unit was viewed as a likely victim of a central Government review to reduce the number of specialist centres in England.

Oxford is one of the smallest of the 11 centres and the inquiry is expected to recommend fewer but bigger units, all capable of performing at least 400 operations a year.

Tuesday’s meeting is being held at the Oxford Centre at 333 Banbury Road, Summertown, between 5pm and 8pm, to give charities and families a chance to have their say.

Kim Homewood, from the Oxford charity Young Hearts, said the charity was concerned that children with congenital heart conditions needed many hospital services over a long period of time.

Children who had acquired heart problems like infections or trauma might also need many services over a long period of time.