Press statement: 10 th May 2005

New anxiety over anaesthetic cover at West Cornwall

Fears have emerged following news that the future of anaesthetic services in Penzance are again under threat. Key staff attended a meeting at the hospital on Tuesday evening to discuss the impact that losing out of hours anaesthetic cover would have on services. At the moment there is an anaesthetist available 24 hours a day, and it is a vital backup for any acute hospital. A senior anaesthetist from RCHT emphasised that the meeting was to discuss all the options with the staff However, there seemed little optimism during the meeting about the possibility of continued cover. The great majority of the staff at the meeting were passionately against any further reduction of services. Strong opinions were expressed that the loss of the cover would mean that only minor surgery could be performed in future. It was also pointed out that doctors would not want to work in the Casualty Department without anaesthetic back-up. In this case there would be no further admissions through Casualty. Any acute admissions from the GPs to the ward would also be unlikely to continue. It was pointed out that absence of acute admissions would lead to staff losing further skills with many choosing to leave. A planned review of the service is likely to see changes take effect from August.

Speaking this week Marna Blundy, from West Cornwall HealthWatch, said:

“If, as seems likely, anaesthetists are to be withdrawn from the hospital apart from during scheduled surgical sessions, this will signal the end of West Cornwall Hospital as we know it. The hospital will be unable to offer its services to many emergency cases, and will be unable to offer a bed to many patients. Frankly, it will become a cottage hospital offering straightforward day surgery, and only non-acute admissions. It sounds the death knell for Penzance, and will be a disaster for us all. If that sounds dramatic, I apologise; it just happens to be true.”

Mrs Blundy continued: “In April 2002, 20,000 people marched through Penzance to demonstrate their support for West Cornwall Hospital remaining as an acute hospital offering 24-hour doctor-led Accident & Emergency facilities, emergency surgery and medicine, High Dependency beds and extended outpatient clinics. Three years later, the hospital has all but lost its surgical emergency admissions, decreased its range of medical admissions, reduced its High Dependency function and diminished its A&E facility to little more than a Minor Injuries Unit. Meanwhile, no-one has yet seen the growth in outpatient clinics, the CT scanner installation or the telemedicine links, all of which were supposed to reduce the number of patients needing to travel to Treliske. The determined and insidious drift towards centralising hospital services in Truro has continued almost unchecked. Those of us who have campaigned long and hard to prevent this happening have so far been unable to reason with the NHS bureaucrats, I am sorry to say. Many in the community may have been taken in by the promises, and even by some of the headlines in the press. However, the fact is that West Cornwall Hospital is now offering less than it did three years ago, and the loss of anaesthetic cover will make a sorry situation even worse. The tide HAS to be turned. Cornwall only has one District General Hospital – it is at Treliske, it cannot cope and it is in the wrong place. The county needs two major hospitals – we cannot put all our eggs into one basket. This is frankly a wake-up call to everyone. We all need to fight to have a health service which meets the needs of our people – can you help us in doing that?” Anyone keen to volunteer their services should contact West Cornwall HealthWatch on westcornwallhealthwatch@yahoo.co.uk or by writing to

4 Botallack Moor, St Just, Penzance, TR19 7QH.