BOURNEMOUTH East MP Tobias Ellwood is urging health chiefs to reconsider their decision to deny one of his constituents a potentially lifesaving heart procedure.

He has written to NHS Bournemouth and Poole chief executive Debbie Fleming over the case of 96-year-old Charles Coutts, of Queen’s Park.

Although doctors at St Thomas’ Hospital in London said the Second World War Burma campaign veteran was an ideal candidate for the keyhole operation to replace his aortic valve, the trust say it is too risky.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVI, is a relatively new alternative for a small number of patients too ill or too frail to withstand open-heart surgery.

Individuals have to show they have good clinical reasons for having it.

So far NHS Bournemouth and Poole has not granted any applications, unlike neighbouring primary care trusts in Dorset and Hampshire.

In his letter, Mr Ellwood urges NHS Bournemouth and Poole to look again at Mr Coutt’s application. “This does look like a case of treatment by postcode lottery,” he said.

“With the large number of elderly people in the Dorset area, we should not be surprised that patients are coming forward for this procedure, and I think this is an issue which the PCT needs to address.”

A spokesperson for NHS Bournemouth and Poole said: “The role of the PCT is to consider carefully the available clinical evidence alongside the detail of the patient’s situation.

“We are confident that the PCT’s decision not to commission this treatment is the right decision, given the current evidence.

“Our policy gives clinicians the right to appeal any decision. We have so far received no appeal from the clinician who first referred Mr Coutts for treatment.”

Another Bournemouth resident, 84-year-old great-grandmother Kathleen Northey, is still awaiting a decision on whether she can have TAVI after heart specialists at Southampton General Hospital said she was suitable.