YOUNG patients with life-threatening heart conditions could lose vital support under plans which could see nursing jobs axed.

Up to 35 jobs could go at the nationally-acclaimed Wessex Cardiac Unit, which treats children all over the South at its base in Southampton.

Dorset and New Forest children are among those who have benefited from the support of cardiac liaison nurses whose jobs are among those under threat.

The jobs are among 570 which could go across Southampton's three hospitals as Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust struggles to balance its budget.

Paul Barlow, chief executive of the charity Wessex Heartbeat, which supports the cardiac unit, said: "A number of posts are under threat but the ones we're particularly concerned about are liaison nurses.

"They provide a link between the patients - who can be children or young adults - and clinical staff, the nurses, doctors and specialists.

"They've proved invaluable and those are the roles that are at risk at the moment.

"They provide a great deal of reassurance, spend a lot of time talking to patients and children about what procedures may be involved."

The charity originally provided £50,000 to pay for two liaison nurses in their first year before the NHS picked up the bill. Those posts are among those which could now go.

Mr Barlow said the impact would be felt in Dorset and the New Forest to a "very considerable extent".

But Bournemouth Teaching Primary Care Trust, which is the lead agency commissioning heart services for Dorset residents, was playing down fears that local patients would suffer as a result on Thursday.

Janet Pressland, director of finance for the trust, said the trust had made "significant investment" in expanding cardiac services at Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch NHS Foundation Trust.

She said: "Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust now only provides specialist cardiac services on a cost-per-case contract basis.

"Most patients in Dorset and Somerset attend the Royal Bournemouth Hospital or are offered treatment through one

of the contracts we have through alternative providers, either in the NHS or independent sectors."

First published: August 12