Health shake-up abandoned (From Daily Echo)

Vascular services will remain the same

6:30am Friday 3rd February 2012 in News By Melanie Adams, Health Reporter

A CONTROVERSIAL shake-up of vascular services in Hampshire has been axed after surgical teams in Southampton and Portsmouth couldn't agree on sharing.

The shock decision has "disappointed" vascular experts at Southampton General Hospital, who believe the changes would have dramatically improve outcomes for patients across the county.

But rather than opt for the original proposed plan to move all services to Southampton to create a dedicated specialist centre for the region, fierce opposition from Portsmouth who did not want to lose its emergency and complex surgery, has forced health bosses to try and find a compromise.

They had hoped that the two hospitals could agree to split services and a public consultation was due to be launched, but neither side could agree on how best to do this and the whole shake-up has been dropped, leaving things as they are.

Health bosses will now work with Portsmouth to ensure they meet all the standards that Southampton is already meeting.

A spokesman from University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Southampton General, said: "We currently have one of the country's leading vascular units which is providing a safe, high quality and sustainable service for people living in south-west Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

"There is good evidence to show that larger units lead to better outcomes so, obviously, we are disappointed that we won't have the opportunity to gain this benefit by creating the Southampton-Portsmouth network, however, we accept the decision and our focus will now be on developing the high quality service we currently provide which has some of the best outcomes in the country."