A CAMPAIGN backed by Oxfordshire parents to save children’s heart services in the county has now received more than 250,000 pledges of support.

Midnight tonight marks the last day for people to have their say in a consultation on a major shake-up of how and where paediatric cardiac procedures are carried out across the country.

It proposes reducing the number of centres carrying out surgery across the country from 11 to six or seven, with a number of hospitals acting as non surgical ‘cardiology centres’.

Heart surgery was stopped at the John Radcliffe last year, but the hospital formed a partnership with Southampton where surgeons still operate on children.

It meant key care services for young heart patients were kept at Oxford, but there are fears that would now change.

A petition supporting Southampton’s bid, run by the Oxford Mail’s sister paper the Southern Daily Echo, has received 250,237 signatures of support.

Jude Kelly, chairman of parents charity Young Hearts, said she would only support Option B, which included surgery at Southampton, as it was the only ‘safe’ option for Oxfordshire children.

Experts at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust (ORH) have now urged the leaders of the review to use the partnership as an example of best practice.

An ORH spokesman said: “Both hospital trusts are committed to ensuring that each individual child is treated in the best place for them whether that is at home, in their local hospital at Oxford or at Southampton.

“The network will be led by the surgical centre at Southampton.

“We believe that this is the first time two teaching hospitals have collaborated in this way to provide a joint tertiary clinical service.”

From the options presented in the Safe and Sustainable consultation, Option B is the only one that preserves the surgical centre at Southampton and so it is the only one compatible with the joint network proposals.

An independent review carried out by lawyer Sir Ian Kennedy first recommended a reduction in the number of hospitals performing complex operations on children’s hearts 10 years ago.

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk l More than 120 people have already responded to the official consultation. To have your say, complete a response form online ipsos-mori.com/ safeandsustainable, or Text ‘HEART’ to 85001 free of charge (you will be sent a question asking for your views on the proposals for change).