CHILDREN’S heart surgery services in Oxford could end, regardless of the outcome of a review into four children’s deaths.

Paediatric cardiac surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital was suspended earlier this month to enable the South Central Strategic Health Authority (SHA) to carry out an investigation into the run of deaths.

However, a national review of all 11 child heart surgery centres in the UK, which began before that investigation, is likely to recommend the number of centres is reduced, with services being carried out at fewer and bigger units capable of more than 400 operations a year. Oxford is the smallest of the 11 UK centres, carrying out about 100 operations a year, a fact which has led to fears it would be closed.

Last night, parents said it would be devastating if the Oxford unit shut.

Karen Green, 39, of Tetsworth, whose eight-year-old son Robbie has a congenital heart defect, said: “I think it would be a real shame if they closed down Oxford. It would not make sense if children and families, with siblings to look after, had to travel miles and miles to undergo surgery.”

Harwell mother-of-three Pippa Webb, whose three-year-old son Joseph is set to have open heart surgery at the John Radcliffe this summer, added: “It will be devastating for Oxfordshire and surrounding counties if child heart surgery is stopped at the JR.

“We’d have to be shipped elsewhere for Joseph’s surgery and, when you have two other healthy children, it makes life impossible.”

The SHA’s findings will be made public in July, while the national review of heart centres, run by the National Specialised Commissioning Group (NSCG) is expected to end in the autumn.

Experts will visit each of the heart centres, including Birmingham and three centres in London, in May and June.

Department of Health spokesman Kirsty Gelsthorpe said: “Children’s heart surgery is the subject of close monitoring of outcomes at national level. To date, no centre’s performance has been out of the acceptable range.

“However, heart surgery has become increasingly complex, requiring staff to work in bigger teams and train in larger centres.

“That is why the sustainability of the 11 centres currently performing children’s heart surgery in England is now the subject of a national review in the NHS.”

A NSCG spokesman said its task was to ensure “a safe and sustainable” service for young heart patients.

A spokesman for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The proposals being put forward suggest there should be fewer, larger units in the future.”

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