Download the Have a Heart petition form

HE’S seen for himself the work that goes on to save the lives of desperately ill children.

Now the leader of Southampton City Council is taking the fight to save the city’s threatened children’s heart unit to the very top – by writing to the Prime Minister.

Tory councillor Royston Smith says he will be penning the letter to David Cameron to ensure that anyone with a chance of influencing the decision on the unit’s future is made aware.

He told the Daily Echo: “When you see it and think about all that might be lost, it is absolutely inconceivable.

“It’s really difficult to see those tiny babies lying there at all – but you know that at this unit they’re in the best possible hands.

“I’m going to make sure the Prime Minister is aware of the consultation and I’m going to the very top to make sure that everyone that can influence this decision gets the opportunity to do so.”

The heart unit is under threat despite being rated as the second best in the country, as health bosses look to cut the UK’s 11 centres down to six or seven.

Southampton features in only one out of four options put out for a public consultation that ends on July 1, with a final decision being made by the end of the year.

If Southampton closed, it means families would be forced to get life-saving treatment in London or Bristol, at centres which experts say fall below the “exemplary” standards that the city’s unit has shown.

Cllr Smith says the case needs to be made that the standard of the care that the unit provides is more important than where it is situated in the country’s children’s heart unit network.

He said: “We need to put a strong case forward to separate geography from quality.

“If we’re talking quality, Southampton would never close.

“As a parent, the really strong argument for me is that I wouldn’t care how far I have to travel to get to a unit like Southampton, I would get there because it’s the best.”

During his visit to the unit, Cllr Smith saw four-year-old William Broadbank recovering from a heart operation in the centre’s intensive care unit and met with his mum Nicky.

William, who’s from Bearwood in Dorset, has been in and out of hospital since he was born, battling against a congenital heart condition.

Cllr Smith added: “To see a parent with her child in intensive care, having had a successful procedure, just reinforced it for me that the results this unit gets are phenomenal.”

Mrs Broadbank said at the weekend that her son is doing well after his operation and they hope he’ll be out of hospital in a week.

Download the Have a Heart petition form


Print it out, get as many signatures as you can and send it to Have a Heart, Southern Daily Echo, Test lane, Redbridge, Southampton, SO16 9JX