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I absolutely agree with Anon 1.06.

The Safe & Sustainable programme for Paediatric Heart Surgery is absolutely not about cost saving, it is about having a national provider configuration that ensures resilient and robust services that are adequately staffed by expert clinicians to ensure optimal outcomes are achieved.

If there were a critical mass of patients for "people ... to be able to go to their local hospital and receive first class care, regardless of where they live" then that is absolutely what Commissioners would be aiming to put in place. The reality is that the need for children's heart surgery is, fortunately, rare requiring the NHS to concentrate expertise in fewer centres than currently exist.