DOCTORS last night urged people to help guarantee the future of child heart services in Oxford.

Medical experts said there was only one option on the table which would keep the city’s current level of care for seriously ill children.

They warned time was ticking to respond to the Government’s consultation on the organisation of paediatric cardiology across the country.

At the moment there are 11 centres carrying out paediatric cardiac surgery across the UK.

But ministers want to reduce that number to six or seven with larger centres carrying out more operations.

They have set out four options detailing how fewer surgical centres would work with other hospitals designated as ‘cardiology centres’.

Although a review deemed Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital the least likely to become a ‘supercentre’, the hospital features in all four options as a cardiology centre.

Since surgery was stopped at the JR, the hospital has formed a partnership with Southampton.

But it is outlined as a possible surgical centre in only one option in the current consultation.

Experts are concerned that if Southampton is not picked as a centre, expertise could be lost from the county, with heart specialists moving out of the area to follow the work.

Ted Baker, medical director of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, urged people to support the Southampton Option B.

He said: “The Trust has been working closely with Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust since surgery stopped at Oxford last year. Together, they have formed a partnership called The South of England Congenital Heart Network with a combined team of clinicians from both hospitals delivering care on both sites.

“Only the surgery and interventional cardiology takes place in Southampton. This means that patients used to coming to Oxford or to one of the district general hospitals that feed into Oxford can continue to have their clinic appointments as close to home as possible.”

Concerns have also been raised about the impact consolidating children’s heart surgery into a smaller number of centres would have on the provision of trauma services and emergency care.

Anne Thomson, director of Children’s and Women’s Services added: “Patients with heart problems often have other health needs too and having all the services in one place provides a continuity of care that patients value.

“But at Oxford, we feel that our relationship with Southampton will provide patients with more opportunities to have treatment at Oxford. Keeping services at Oxford is important because it’s convenient for patients but also because having specialist clinicians working in our hospitals provides more access for patients to diagnostics as well as treatment.”