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

PRESS STATEMENT 27 January 2002

CORNWALLS A&E SERVICES BEING CUT BY HALF.

West Cornwall HealthWatch today issued the following statement:

"We categorically reject the West Cornwall Hospital Services Review Final Report. We do not accept that all A&E admissions at West Cornwall hospital should cease and that there should be only one Consultant/Doctor led 24 hour Accident & Emergency Hospital for Cornwall.

It is totally unacceptable that Cornwall should have the distinction of being unique amongst rural counties (with a single main road running its length) having just one Accident & Emergency hospital. Cornwall has a resident population of approximately 500,000, a figure that dramatically increases when the 3.5 MILLION visitors arrive during the holiday season. Expecting a total of perhaps four million people to congregate outside the doors of a single A&E Department, should they require emergency treatment, is utter madness.

The Review Report majors on the supposed benefits to the local residents in the west of the county if the findings are implemented. HealthWatch naturally welcomes any increase in the number of minor and day treatments carried out locally instead of at Treliske. However, whilst any move to reduce the numbers of patients travelling from Lands End to Treliske is to be applauded, we believe that the prominence given to the supposed benefits is a deliberate smokescreen. It is only by reading the small print and having a thorough grasp of NHS phraseology, that the full enormity of the proposals becomes clear.

Given the appalling track record of Treliske that we constantly read about, it is beyond belief that the latest plans should call for an end to all casualty admissions at West Cornwall hospital, adding an additional 150,000 permanent residents in the west to Treliskes A&E catchment area.

Unfortunately, by stating clearly at the beginning of the Review that the enquiry was only into West Cornwall Hospital, all those who live in North, South, East and Central Cornwall were led to pay little attention to what was going on.

Now however, the shocking recommendations contained in the report are clearly going to have an adverse impact on the entire county. Therefore HealthWatch has today called upon Cornwall County Council to set up an offical and independent inquiry into the NHS services planned for the county.

The NHS Review into our countys A&E facilities has clearly ignored the needs of the people, yet has accepted the desires of the London-based Royal College of Physicians and the Treliske-biased managers and clinicians. The truth of what is required, now and over the next decades, from the perspective of the patients needs, will only become clear when such an independent report is published.

It is clear that the latest proposals do nothing to alleviate the current crisis at Treliske, but do involve the removal of services from West Cornwall Hospital. Yet in recent months local people have made quite clear that these services need to be both retained and expanded.

The County Councils motto is "One and All", meaning that it represents each individual and therefore the entire population. Now is the time for them to stand up for "One and All" and ensure that Cornwall has a National Health Service that is not only effective, efficient and safe but above all is based solely on patient needs, as promised in the NHS Plan.

The wholly independent Review which HealthWatch is calling for should look at the countys needs with a clean sheet of paper. It should consider the future of all hospital services from the patients perspective. It is high time the residents of Cornwall enjoyed the same NHS facilities as the residents of both Downing and Harley Street."

Joe McKenna on behalf of West Cornwall HealthWatch Tel / Fax 01736 788107 westcornwallhealthwatch@yahoo.co.uk