31/10/2011 Inside Out South

Hello and welcome to Inside Out. I'm here, you're there, so what's

coming up? On tonight's programme... We're going to put him out with gas

and air and then say goodbye. surgery for the south under threat.

Southampton General Hospital fights to keep its life-saving unit.

seems a great shame to move the services away from where the

patients are. We put the Government's Big Society dreams to

the test. That looks fantastic. It's for the community. I like to

put a bit back. But is this high rise, high-problem block in

Portsmouth up for the challenge? Tower blocks are the ruination of

family life. Do you think we can change it? I don't think you can.

And just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

Yeah, it's going well. I'm getting very wet. Moving home, big style.

Killers of the deep head to Berkshire. It's just making sure

they are happy in their new environment. This is Inside Out

First tonight, imagine the stress as a parent if your child has a

heart condition. Add to that the threat that the very unit which

could save your child's life may be about to close. That is exactly

what is happening here in Southampton. We have been behind

the scenes to see what is at stake. Meet two-year-old Harry Rogerson.

His dad, Ben. And mum, Cerys. Harry may look like a healthy boy, but he

has a very unhealthy heart. It is very difficult sometimes to put the

heart condition together with the personality of the child, because

he is such a life force and he deals with it all so well. It is

very inspiring for me to watch him. Harry was born with transposition

of the great arteries, which meant blood flowed round his heart the

wrong way, causing a lack of oxygen. Harry will need a series of

complicated operations during his childhood to keep him alive.

Nothing is ever very straightforward with these things.

Extremely complex, what they're trying to do with Harry. Anything

can happen. When they're telling you that his heart is fundamentally

malformed, and he is going to need a big operation to fix it, it is at

extreme odds with that happy, smiling little fellow in your arms.

And he is going to be kind of made ill. We're going to put him through

an operation. He will feel dreadful. Harry is having his life-saving

heart operation at Southampton General Hospital. The children's

heart unit rates as the top performing centre outside London.

Right, I've got your special medicine. 300 children born with

serious heart conditions are operated on here every year. There

are what ifs. Of course there are what ifs that wind you up. But it's

the things that I know are going to happen. But I don't think he

realises it. For the next day or two, he will feel very ill. When he

goes downstairs, they're going to put him out with gas and air and

Harry is about to have a valvotomy - an operation to widen the

narrowed valve. This will help increase the blood flow through his

struggling heart. The operation will take three and a half hours.

There is a long wait ahead for his 15-year-old Hallam Stuckey from

Wareham is also a patient here. Like Harry, Hallam was born with

transposition of the great arteries. He had major surgery as a baby, but

now needs a life-saving operation to replace a failing valve. I'm 15.

I enjoy just hanging out with my mates. Gaming. That sort of thing.

I enjoy cycling to work. I work down a cafe. I go to a public

school in Wareham, doing history, geography, more GCSEs. And short

course French, which I'm terrible at. I just generally tend to forget

that I have a heart problem. I feel like any other normal kid. But

surgery is going to be a little scary. I've got my little brother

over there. He's OK. But he's not getting anything in the will. I'm

joking, he can have that! It's had quite a devastating effect. There's

no point pretending this kind of thing isn't upsetting. It's very

hard to come to terms with. It's a serious operation. But you have

just got to put a lot to the back of your mind and get on with it. If

everyone mopes around, everyone will be upset all time and that is

not really good for Hallam. He needs to be as positive as possible.

We all do. On the children's cardiac ward, the team is preparing

Hallam for a long and complex operation. Marcus Haw will be

performing the surgery. He has been operating here for 14 years, but

there's never anything routine about open heart surgery. The heart

is growing. The volume of the heart is increasing faster as you're

getting bigger. So that means there is a situation where the leak is

beginning to stretch the heart. We wanted, really, to get a solution

for you that fixes you for everything you want to do but also

lasts you potentially for the rest of your life.

This major operation is not without its risks and Marcus has to explain

them all. If anything acute were to happen,

any part of the body can be affected. Southampton is one of 11

children's cardiac units in the country.

The government says it is looking to improve services across the UK

by merging children's heart surgery into fewer but larger and better

performing units. But better performance comes at a price.

Almost half the surgical units may close, including Southampton. The

NHS group believes skills are spread too thinly around the

country and that these changes, although tough, will improve

quality of care for children. Everybody agrees that we need

bigger centres and that we can improve things and make them more

sustainable in the future by having the centres, but nobody wants it to

be their unit to change. Everybody has built up a unit and it has been

through hard work, teamwork and putting their heart and soul into

it. It is understandable that people do not want to change that.

But it is the right thing to do. We need to make these difficult

decisions about which units will continue doing the same things in

the future. But surgeons here are concerned about the effects of

breaking up local teams. You can't just send them to different centres

all over the country and expect them to perform in exactly the same

way. Different units are different. This team has taken decades to

assemble. It has evolved. It has not just been placed. It has

evolved over 40 years. It's very difficult to actually keep

everybody together and move them. Harry's operation is over. First

thing to say, Harry is safe. We have finished the operation.

The valve will now keep him healthy until his body is fully grown.

Eventually, he will need a complete valve replacement. It's all smiles

for Harry's parents, but for Hallam's mum, the wait is about to

OK, you will feel that going a bit tight on your arm. Give him a kiss.

He is off to sleep. I think he is! Good night. I will see you in a bit.

Marcus is going to replace one of Hallam's leaky heart valves with a

mechanical one made of carbon. It is a delicate and complicated

procedure, made even more difficult by scarring from previous

Hallam's heart goes into an abnormal rhythm. Shock. Go for it.

Quickly. OK. Good. Well done. it is reset and the operation

continues. The first thing you feel is that you're sorry for the

patient to have to go through it. You feel a number of different

things. You do not feel emotional, but you feel very proud of the team

that you work with because you know you can do this effectively.

Hallam's blood is now circulated by machine. His heart can now be

stopped so the valve can be fitted. Sometimes, you have to pinch

yourself to think, gosh, we are really doing this! It is a very

unusual type of work to do. Obviously, you train over decades

to be able to do this sort of work. The new valve should last forever,

but Hallam will have to take blood thinning drugs for the rest of his

life. Every part is vital.

If you get the diagnosis wrong, you don't interpret things right, make

the wrong decisions, then it can be a disaster. It is a very well

controlled process. The operation has taken five hours.

Hallam is moved to paediatric intensive care. If the children's

unit is closed, half the beds in here will disappear.

The consequences of the closure of the cardiac surgical unit will mean

that the resources available to critical young children across the

south coast will be reduced dramatically. This unit has

developed over the last 10 or 15 years to be one of the best

children's intensive care units in the country. It was not always here.

We will return to a situation which the children of the south

experienced 10 or 15 years ago. They're very much more likely to

have to be moved to Bristol, London or Birmingham for the care they

need. It has been three weeks since the

surgery and Hallam is making a speedy recovery at home. But he

knows if he needs another operation, it may not be at his local hospital.

The wonderful thing about the service in the UK at the moment is

every unit's population is doing a superb job. That is great. The

problem is that is not sustainable in the future and that is why we

have to change. We have to look people in the eye and tell them

they're difficult decisions, but they must be made. We have a

responsibility to children in the future to take these difficult

decisions now. We should find out by the end of

the year whether Southampton's unit will stay or go, but in the

meantime, good luck to young Harry and Hallam.

This idea of a Big Society is starting to get interesting, given

the cuts we face here in the region. People power will save the day,

according to the politicians. We thought we would put that to the

test. Handsworth House in Portsmouth.

Built with the high-rise dreams of the post-war era. Full of the low-

down problems of modern life. 154 flats over 17 floors. A complete

little society, if you like. What better place to try out the

Government's plans for a Big Society? I moved here in 1965. I

was in an old house and never had no bathroom. I came to a place like

this. It was like a palace. year-old war veteran Cyril Wheelan

has lived here ever since the flats were built. It was good. All the

people in the flats, you knew everybody. Everybody. Now, it has

deteriorated. I don't have no conversation with anybody on this

floor. And I like talking to people. I would say good morning or it is a

cold day, and they don't want to know. Do you think we can change

it? I don't think you can. I don't think you can. Well, if anyone can

change things, it is this man, Gerry Stoker. He is the person who

helped come up with the idea of a Big Society. It was his research

that has been taken up as a mantra by the Government. The Big Society

is about a huge culture change, creating a country that feels like

a community to try and build a bigger and stronger society. People

call it responsibility. I call it the Big Society. If you're going to

create the Big Society, you need people with skills and resources.

That is not evenly distributed in our society. You also need to

recognise that people need to be asked in the right kind of way,

which encourages them to get involved. Our work is focused on

the practicalities of creating the Big Society, often in very

difficult circumstances. Circumstances I find at Handsworth

House. It does look quite foreboding in some ways. But it is

a good test, because if you can create the conditions for the Big

Society here, you can probably create them virtually anywhere.

Gerry will be coming to the Handsworth coffee mornings. This

weekly event is the only get- together for the entire block of

flats. It is here that the woes of the estate are aired by the few who

bother to turn up. Tower blocks are the ruination of family life.

You can go three months without actually seeing a neighbour. People

are no longer interested in their neighbours, in loyalty to

neighbours, in friendships with neighbours. We had six warrants in

here last week for drug dealers and doors being smashed in. We should

not have to live like that in our old age. This community room used

to be in use every single day of the week. Monday was the gymnastics

class I used to take. Tuesday was stroke club. Wednesday, a be used

to have a tea dance. Thursday was bingo. Friday, I used to do a

really big coffee morning and we used to get 40 people to do the

raffle. It was good then, but I want to get it good now. I don't

think it will ever go back to that. Really? No. Why? Because you've got

too many different cultures and too many different age groups. The

youngsters don't want to come down and sit down there with the old

wrinklies like us, do they? But Big Society expert Gerry Stoker doesn't

think it's an age issue. The modern generation, just as much as the old

generation, value caring for others and looking after their community

and trying to make a wider contribution to society. But we

live in a much more pressured society. I actually think it means

that we have to work a lot harder on creating the conditions for the

Big Society in today's world, compared to the 1950s. This is the

fifth floor. We get trouble sometimes with rough sleepers here.

Do they sleep in the hallway? usually go in the back stairs. But

the worrying part is the children. One man was thrown out the window

at the other side of my landing. Poor old me, I had gone over in the

morning to get my paper and I walked in there to put my rubbish

in the bin and I thought there was red paint dripping on me. No?!

I looked up and saw this arm and leg hanging over the parapet. It

was blood. Gerry is going to help us make

things better. But you have to want things to be better.

Gerry has a huge challenge - selling his Big Society to the

unhappy coffee group. What are the things which do actually give you a

chance to come together? The coffee morning. The coffee morning. We

could maybe build on that. What about if we had some sort of lunch

where people could bring different things together, kind of like a

community picnic. So, a resident's buffet meal seems

the popular choice. All those in favour?

Aye! OK, well, that is pretty unanimous!

Posters go up, invitations go to every single household, so that

three weeks later, on the day of our Big Society meal, I am hopeful

that apathy may give way to expectation.

Has anyone been talking about the lunch? Yes. Do you think they're

going to come? Yes, I don't see why not. If they don't, they're nut

cases. As mouth-watering dishes appear, it seems some residents

have really got into the spirit of being good neighbours. Can we have

a sneaky peak? Wow! Look at that. We have some rice. And then down to

the 10th floor, because we have two fresh quiches that have just come

out of the oven. Is it nice to see people talking? Yes, it is. That

looks fantastic. What is it? Lasagne? Yes. The amount of food

being donated is astounding. Don't worry about me, I'm fine! And most

of it seems to be coming from hard- up pensioners, for whom every penny

counts. I didn't have to come up but when it's for the community, I

like to put a bit back. That one is vegetable curry. This one is beef

stew. The end one is a Jamaican pork curry. What we have tried to

do is just a little lunch. The whole idea is to see if we can

build something that will last and give them a way of working with one

another and making a better community for themselves in the

long run. Although the room is full, it is mostly local volunteer groups

who have come to lend support. They're outnumbering residents

three to one. I'll be honest, I'm a bit disappointed. On the basis of

153 flats, 17 floors... There weren't a lot turned out from this

block. Yeah. It's like the old army days, isn't it? There is still a

good vibe, even if only the coffee group regulars and a handful of

others have come from the flats. Yet again, it is the older

residents who are willing this to succeed. Most of their younger

neighbours have stayed away. I only thought it was going to be

sandwiches. I didn't expect this. This is what was wanted.

Unfortunately, the reality is that the people who are keen on doing

something, they are involved, they are engaged, but it's getting that

wider community involved that is much harder. That is why, when his

activists step forward, we need to think hard about how we can support

them, and give them the strength and courage to carry on in very

hard circumstances. People start to leave.

The piles of lovely prepared food go mostly uneaten and the kind

chefs who made such an effort head home.

Those two are pillars of the community. They worked so hard to

try and get everything off the ground. But it is an uphill

struggle. If there were more people like those two in the world, the

Big Society would be easy. Sadly, it appears there aren't. People

outside are more friendly. I wish they would get together and get to

know each other more. Then you could have parties and more of that.

But they won't. They're all stick Don't forget to tell me what's

happening where you live. E-mail me at this address.

They say moving house is as stressful as it gets. Don't believe

a word of it. Moving sharks in a lorry from Weymouth to Windsor is

as bad as it gets. You have to be as cool as a sea cucumber.

This ambitious project has been two years in the planning. The aim is

to fill this massive aquarium with over 50 species of shark, ray and

tropical fish. All of them are coming from Weymouth. The man in

charge of welcoming the new arrivals will be Iain Grieve.

we're doing here is just checking all of the levels to make sure that

when the fish come, there is enough water, so we can move the water

from the truck into the aquarium. Everything looks OK. We're good to

go for the fish transport. Meanwhile, in Weymouth, where some

of the fish have been bred, preparations for the moves are

under way. It is Chris Brown's job to make sure all the sharks are

ready and fit for travelling. Is there a risk moving them? There

is always a risk moving animals. It is the most stressful time for them.

We have had years of experience of this and we really know how to

reduce the stress levels to the animals. This lot have not been fed

for a while, have they? Not for three days. This is very important.

If you move an animal once they have just been fed, they might be

sick into into the tank or produce waste, so the water will get dirty.

This would affect the animal. Altogether, they will be moving

over 250 fish tomorrow, including a dozen sharks and 25 stingrays. It's

all about timing, isn't it? Once the clock starts ticking, that's it.

Once we move the first fish and its transport container, for that

animal, it is a race against time to get it to the aquarium as

quickly as possible. It is 5:05am. The trucks are here.

The clock has started to tick. The sharks are about to be moved.

The team is split into two, with one half having to pack over 200 of

the smaller fish and the others are moving the rays and the sharks.

How's it going? Yes, it's going well. I'm getting very wet. Which

is normal. Lots of pressure. don't want to be the ones letting

the side down. So pack like mad men for the next couple of hours.

It is essential that everybody keeps to time so the fish do not

stay too long in the transport tanks.

Just watch your foot there. These are the ones with the stings, so we

have to be careful where they are. That is why we're using long-

handled nets. The team has kept to their timing

and the fully loaded truck is Ethically, I strongly disagree with

animal circuses and that side of things. I certainly wouldn't have

any of our animals performing tricks. That is the opposite way to

the way we want to go. Lots of people don't ever get the chance to

travel abroad or to go scuba-diving to see some of these wonderful

creatures and to see what is happening underwater. We're

bringing that to the UK so that the children can actually experience

I am hoping for some nice energised rays swimming round. Perfect. Very

We're just going to try and send them off out into the main body of

the tanks so they have lots of space to swim round and orientate

themselves. As they are introduced, you are watching their behaviour to

make sure everything is good. What you looking for? It is important

that when we move them from the lorry to the tank, that is their

highest stress point. We hold them still so they have a chance to get

used to their surroundings but be in the safe confines of the net.

Once they have calmed down a bit, we release them. We want release

them so they go straight into the main body of the tank. How long

before they are really comfortable in their new surroundings?

ideal thing to tell you is really when they start feeding. That is

when they are truly happy in their home and feel relaxed enough to go

on the feed. That would take two or three days, really. Lovely.

So we're kind of halfway through the unloading now. Rays and sharks

and smaller fish have all gone into the tank. It is just making sure

that they're happy in their new This is it, Chris. It will be very

exciting see this one swim off into its new home. The final one.

fact that they are feeding so early, does that mean that they're quite

settled? Yeah, it means they are relaxed enough to feed. Sometimes,

they won't feed for three or four days after transport. This shows

that they have settled straight away, which is just the kind of

news I want to hear. A perfect end for you? Absolutely fantastic.

And I bet they all taste delicious with chips. That's it for tonight.

I will see you next week. We ask what would you do if squatters

invaded your home. It that they have changed the locks and they are