A WEST DEVON woman has made a direct appeal to the Prime Minister to try and safeguard the 'amazing' cardiac services at Southampton Hospital which have enabled her daughter to lead as normal life as possible.

Anna Dodd, of Peter Tavy, said she was 'shocked and amazed' that Southampton General Hospital was only included in one of four options for which units should remain as surgical paediatric cardiac centres in the future.

Over the last 16 years, her daughter Emily, who was born with a congenital cardiac condition, has required many cardiac catheters and five operations, four of which involved long and complex open heart procedures. These have all been performed at Southampton.

Mrs Dodd said: 'Due to the skills and expertise of the Southampton team our daughter is firstly still alive and secondly doing very well, having just taken her GCSEs.

'The unit is amazing and has the best surgical outcome figures outside London. They are like a family to us, in whom we put complete trust.

'The peripheral outpatient clinic held in Plymouth means that we only have to travel to Southampton for procedures. We don't always see our (wonderful) consultant but we have complete confidence in the whole team of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons in Southampton because they work closely together, constantly liaising with each other as to the best/safest treatment options for their patients.

'The thought of losing such a well established centre of excellence is deeply concerning.'

Mrs Dodd said her daughter's condition could not be cured and she would require further surgery. At Southampton they had a specialist surgeon for patients entering the transition stage to adult services and a transition ward specialising in the needs of this 'vulnerable group of patients'.

The NHS is reviewing how it delivers congenital heart services to children at the request of national parent groups, NHS clinicians and their professional associations.

There are concerns that some centres are not performing enough surgical procedures to maintain and develop their specialist skills and that some centres do not have enough surgeons to guarantee a safe 24/7 service.

A likely outcome of the 'safe and sustainable' review is recommendations for a reduction in the current eleven centres across the country for specialist surgical expertise to be concentrated in fewer, larger centres and for a national model of care that strengthens the delivery of non-interventional assessment and follow-up care in local hospitals. Bristol Royal Hospital for children features in all the four options.

West Devon MP Geoffrey Cox said he had the deepest sympathy for the Dodd family and understood how deeply attached people became to hospitals where they had received excellent treatment. He said David Cameron would also know this 'as much as anybody'.

'The evidence appears to show, however, that these kind of highly specialised centres do better in larger centres of population because there are a larger number of patients who need this treatment,' he said. 'The consultants are also able to obtain greater experience.

'It is a very difficult balance to strike between having a more local hospital and having a hospital that has the critical number of patients with highly specialised conditions that enable the consultants to maintain these very very important skills. It is extremely important that all the options are looked at closely.'

He said he would be making sure that the Dodd family received a reply to their letter.