West Cornwall Healthwatch has had severe misgivings about the Review process from its inception. It has no doubt that the proposals will be detrimental not just to those (120,000+) who look to West Cornwall Hospital for their hospital services, but to the extra 250,000 who are in the main served by Treliske.

HealthWatch is concerned about:

• CENTRALISATION
  It is totally unacceptable that Cornwall should have only one 24-hour A&E Department. Devon, with a population twice the size of Cornwall, has four full A&E Departments - therefore Cornwall should have two.
• CAPACITY AT TRELISKE
  Managers have already admitted that the site at Treliske is overloaded, and that it has insufficient beds. Recently announced plans for two extra temporary wards to be in place within six months, at a cost of over £3million, will only cope with existing demand. If all emergency medical and surgical cases were transferred to Treliske it would make matters far worse.
• PATIENT NEEDS
  The Prime Minister promised that the NHS would be based on patient needs with the public consulted at every stage. This has not happened here. "Public involvement" has in reality been a sham. The Consultation Document is a "top-down" argument from the clinicians' perspective, not the patients'.
• A PRE-DETERMINED REVIEW PROCESS
  The findings of the Review were pre-determined from the outset. In September 2000 Review Manager Jo Yelland, then Chief Officer of the Cornwall Community Health Council, stated "Acute and surgical admissions at West Cornwall Hospital will stop. The next stage of the process is for the Primary Care Group to make a decision about the timing of the withdrawal of acute and surgical admissions, which WILL happen." HealthWatch has further evidence of pre-determination, which will appear in its forthcoming response to the Consultation.
• A NON-INDEPENDENT REVIEW
  The Review team consists of full-time managers from the Primary Care and Hospitals Trusts. The Review would therefore inevitably be influenced by other agendas. HealthWatch believes that there should be an official and truly independent inquiry into the NHS services planned for the county.
• SKEWED STATISTICS
  Statistics in the document are complex, but are at best misleading and at times at odds with the quoted views of other bodies
  a) Investment of £10million at West Cornwall Hospital over the past 10 years may sound significant, but in fact represents only 0.25% of the total Cornish healthcare budget - 99.75% was spent elsewhere.
  b) The proposals state that 37% more patients could be seen at West Cornwall Hospital, but in fact the increases would be in minor procedures, plus outpatient clinics which would be dependent upon the goodwill of Treliske Consultants.
  c) Claims that the hospital has only one emergency admission via Casualty at night ignore all the other emergency admissions going directly to the ward via GP referrals.
  d) Claims that the hospital's catchment area has "too small a range of patients to maintain the expertise of specialist doctors and nurses" are not supported by any evidence. In fact, data from other District General Hospitals serving populations of 110,000 reveal that all have full Consultant led 24-hour A&E Departments, diagnostic facilities, and admit all medical and surgical cases.
  e) The statement "District General Hospitals typically serve populations of 250,000 - 300,000" is not supported by the evidence. In fact, 45% of all DGHs in the country serve populations below 200,000; a mere 15% of such hospitals serve populations of 250,000 - 300,000
• DIMINISHING THE IMPORTANCE OF WCH
  There has during the entire Review period been a consistent attempt to minimise the importance of West Cornwall Hospital in the eyes of the population. HealthWatch deplores the use of innuendo, misinformation, and the implication that the hospital offers a lesser service than is in reality the case.
  a) The hospital was listed in a Health Matters leaflet as offering a nurse-led service ranked below that of the Minor Injuries Units elsewhere in the county - in fact, its "Casualty Department" deals daily with a vast range of conditions which a Minor Injuries Unit cannot touch.
  b) It was publicly stated that West Cornwall Hospital does not receive heart attack or road traffic accident victims - in fact, it can currently receive both
  c) Penzance currently has a well-equipped High Dependency Unit, which is not apparent from the Review Document and which will close if any of the proposals are adopted.

Co-ordinator: Marna Blundy, 4 Botallack Moor, St Just, PENZANCE, Cornwall TR19 7QH
Tel / Fax 01736 788107
Email: westcornwallhealthwatch@yahoo.co.uk