MORE patients in the south are surviving severe injuries thanks to a specialist trauma centre at a Southampton hospital.

Southampton General Hospital has one of just 12 centres across the country that offers a full range of specialist surgical, intensive care and support services for adults and children.

And it has helped increase the chance of surviving critical injuries by 30 per cent, according to a national independent audit by Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN).

It is an increase of ten per cent on last year’s figures with anyone suffering trauma taken to the Southampton centre, which opened in April 2012, if within a 45-minute drive.

Last year, Southampton saw 382 patients with immediately life-threatening injuries compared to 288 in 2011-12, and 359 patients with potentially lifechanging injuries compared to 214 in 2011-12.

The audit found 600 more lives had been saved nationwide thanks to access to treatment – including 24 in the south.

The city’s trauma centre is supported by seven trauma units – Portsmouth, Basingstoke, Poole, Dorset, Salisbury, Chichester and the Isle of Wight – as well as two ambulance services and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance.