THE HOURS are ticking away for you to have your say on the future of Southampton's highly acclaimed heart unit.

Nurses' jobs may go and services may be cut under proposals to cut £4m from the budget of the Southampton General Hospital unit.

But if you didn't realise you had the chance to have your say, that's not surprising. The consultation process has been little more than a sham. No public meetings, no letters to cardiac patients, no helpline phone number, just an obscure website document in official jargon that has not been publicised.

In short, an utter disgrace.

The opportunity for members of the public to voice their opinion effectively ceases at midnight tonight.

Then officialdom will close the door, leaving us to await its decision on a vital service that treats thousands of patients a year at the Wessex Cardiac Unit.

Southampton University Hospitals Trust insists it needs to save £4m. Yes, we hear that.

It further stresses the job loss option is merely a proposal at this stage. We hear that too.

However, today we reveal the alarming truth that many people are simply unaware there has even been an opportunity to give feedback. And the proposal, contained in an information document on the trust's website, is punctuated with baffling jargon which has proved impenetrable to many.

More on this story in tonight's Daily Echo - The public information exercise that many knew nothing about.