Kingston and Surbiton’s MP has claimed victory in the battle to keep a children’s ward at Kingston Hospital open.

The ward was set to be shut by the Better Services Better Value (BSBV) review, which aims to improve services and save money.

MP Edward Davey said he believed the Sunshine ward had been saved and the recommendations to maintain children’s assessment and short-term treatment wards in Kingston represented a public victory.

He said: “Sunshine ward is saved. Some children who are very sick, as happens now, will go to a new centralised ward but the vast majority will stay local.”

But health union Unison said the ward’s future was still at risk because recommendations also proposed creating a specialist children’s centre at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, a move it believed could undermine remaining children’s healthcare units elsewhere.

Recommendations due to go before the joint boards of south-west London primary care trusts on September 27, as part of the BSBV cross-borough hospital review, favour an option where specialist paediatric staff are based in Tooting but urgent health care is provided in patients’ home boroughs.

Dr Howard Freeman, GP and joint medical director for BSBV, said childrens wards would remain at Kingston for children needing assessment and short-term treatment.

He said: “The vast majority of children in south-west London will be seen, treated and cared for on these short-stay wards at their local hospital.

“Those children who are sicker or need specialist care or a longer inpatient stay will be cared for at a centralised inpatient ward at St George’s Hospital where specialised services are available.”

Unison urged caution over proposals and said it meant a chipping away of services that could diminish the future of Kingston’s children’s medical services.

Michael Walker, regional officer for Kingston, said: “I would be concerned about the future requirement for paediatric nurses and specialist doctors.

“If they are moving the specialised service to St George’s, by its very nature it is going to reduce the number of doctors and nurses and that cannot be good for the service.

“It is yet another service that will be downgraded and that is chipping away at the long-term viability of the ward and Kingston Hospital.”

Campaign group Kingston Health Alert said it was better for children with chronic illnesses, needing longer hospital stays, to be treated nearer home.

Kingston’s Labour Party leader Laurie South said he did not believe the recommendations were a good thing for any of the hospitals involved.

He said: “Finding out who is telling the truth is difficult, I suspect everyone is trying to put their spin on it.

“I think [Sunshine Ward’s future] is still a concern because there will be an awful lot of people who really cannot afford to see their children at a long distance they will need to keep them close.”