Your text could help save Southampton's cardiac unit

IT’S EASY, it’s free and it could help save children’s heart surgery in Southampton.

Young people are being urged to join the fight to save Southampton General Hospital’s top rated heart unit for youngsters by taking part in a mass textathon.

Young people can text ‘HEART’ to 85001 free of charge and will be sent a question asking them for their view on the proposals for change.

With just weeks until the end of the consultation into paediatric heart surgery across the UK, health bosses have launched a new text number to help and encourage youngsters to have their say.

So those backing the Daily Echo’s Have a Heart campaign are calling on all children and teenagers to make the most of this new weapon in the battle and hit health chiefs with a flood of texts supporting the only option Southampton features in – Option B.

Despite being ranked the second best in the country our paediatric heart unit is under threat as health chiefs look to cut the UK’s 11 centres down to six or seven.

Click here to save the heart unit.

Southampton was featured in just one of four options which will be put out for public consultation, before the Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts (JCPCT) makes its final decision.

If Southampton closed, families would be forced to get life-saving treatment in London or Bristol, at units which experts say fell below the “exemplary” standards that the city boasts.

The four-month consultation has come under fire for being too complex for adults let alone children, so it’s hoped this free service will provide children and teenagers with a quick and easy way to have their voice heard, without having to go through the 260-page consultation document.

One mum, Sam Prior, whose nine-year-old Aaron was born with a serious heart defect, said: “I would urge every young person to get out their mobile phones and make the most of this opportunity to have their say on this very important consultation.

“It is disappointing that the review team has only just launched this text service, when it should have been in place from the start but we need to make sure as many people as possible respond in the time that is left.”

Jeremy Glyde, Safe and Sustainable programme director, said: “We have listened to feedback from parent groups regarding making the consultation as accessible as possible for this important group of people.”