PRESS STATEMENT 14th May 2001

HEALTH WATCHDOG SLAMS REVIEW BULLETIN

has criticised the contents of the recently published “Review Bulletin” issued by Jo Yelland, the Project Manager responsible for reviewing the future of services at West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance. The bulletin is available to members of the public through GP clinics, dentists, opticians and pharmacists in Penwith and Kerrier. However, in a statement issued this week, describes it as “misleading, inaccurate and a clear indication of the mindset behind the Review process – members of the public should read it with great caution.”

Spokesperson Joe McKenna, one of the authors of ’s acclaimed report ‘The People’s Option for the future of West Cornwall Hospital’, explains: “The bulletin claims that there are minimum standards for any hospital taking emergency admissions. This is an example of fiction getting in the way of fact. The facts are that there are no such minimum standards. There are recommendations that have been issued, but these refer to stand-alone A & E departments. West Cornwall Hospital is still part of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, with shared staffing and sophisticated tele-medicine links, and therefore does not need to have all the services listed in the bulletin in order to have its own A&E Department. It would appear that the list of claimed standards is based on suggestions contained in the Joint Consultants Committee report. Yet mysteriously it fails to include the last paragraph of the JCC’s suggestions that, ‘One or more of these (services) may not be required on site, if a dedicated specialist hospital with full supporting services is nearby’”.

Mr McKenna poses the question: “Are the figures contained in this bulletin fact or fiction? The Royal College of Physicians Visit last December reported that West Cornwall Hospital serves a population of between 100,000 – 120,000. The bulletin issued by Ms Yelland this month claims that it serves a population of only 80,000. We have to ask where are the missing 20,000 - 40,000? To mislay one patient is regrettable, to lose 40,000 is carelessness. Furthermore, Ms Yelland has stated that West Cornwall Hospital has too few patients and too few staff to be able to maintain 24-hour A&E cover. She even said, in a meeting with the League of Friends and ourselves, that “It’s a numbers game at this stage.” If it is, we suggest that she finds the 40,000 missing population fast, and bears in mind that West Cornwall Hospital can access staff and facilities from Treliske when required.”

“Continuing with the numbers game, we have done our own sums. Cornwall’s population of 488,000 is served to the east by Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, which takes 112,240 (23%), and to the north by Barnstaple Hospital in North Devon, which serves around 14,000 people in Bude and Stratton. The remaining population of 361,760 are served by Treliske and West Cornwall Hospitals. From this number, we know that on many days and nights of the week, West Cornwall is on divert for all emergencies from Redruth down – a population of 152,000. This leaves Treliske to look after the remaining 209,000. We could be forgiven for wondering why these figures are not so widely publicised.”

The statement concludes: “The inaccuracy of the figures and the reference to minimum standards that don’t apply, are shocking examples of mis-information. This not a numbers game at all. It is about meeting the NEEDS of the population and ensuring that Cornwall has in place a full National Health Service system geared up to meet those needs. We note that the first Review Bulletin has been devoted to describing the concerns of local hospital doctors. We look forward to the second bulletin being devoted to listing the needs of the population, not just that served by West Cornwall Hospital, but the needs of the entire county. It is accepted by all parties that health services in Cornwall need to be improved to meet the needs of its people, its high number of tourists, its peninsularity and its poor road structure. There is therefore a need for both Treliske and West Cornwall Hospitals to maintain a full 24-hour Consultant and doctor-led A&E department; and a for Minor Injuries Unit to be set up at Camborne-Redruth Hospital.”