Steve Brine has secured a three-hour debate in the House of Commons to discuss the future of children's heart surgery.
The Winchester & Chandler's Ford MP was part of a cross-party group of MPs who successfully appealed to the new Backbench Business Committee for a debate about the Safe & Sustainable review into congenital heart services across England & Wales.
The National Specialised Commissioning Team is making recommendations to reduce the current 11 centres to 7 and a public consultation is underway, which will run until 1st July 2011. It has come up with a series of options to cluster these services across the country.
Steve Brine said: "Despite being right at the top of the list when it comes to quality of care for these very sick children, Southampton appears in just one of the four options being considered by Safe & Sustainable and is therefore under real threat. I have very real concerns about this consultation, not least the travel and population projections around which some of its central assertions are based.
"MPs across the House are worried about this process and it is excellent that the issues will be debated in full on the floor of the House of Commons itself. I hope the review team will listen very carefully to the arguments put forward and act appropriately to ensure public confidence is not further eroded."
More information...
Check out Steve's dedicated webpage on children's heart surgery here.