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

PRESS STATEMENT
COUNTY COMMITTEE DELAYS ITS DECISION

Almost 100 members of the public travelled to Truro last Thursday (May 25th) to make representations to the County Council’s Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny committee in support of the call for an independent review into the funding and management of the county’s acute hospital services. Their case was clear:
• Concentrating acute services on a single site makes no sense, either now or in the future, when there will be more patients, more elderly people and more visitors. The suggestion that a future shift of emergency care away from hospitals will, of itself, cope with these pressures is wishful thinking.
• It isn’t simply a question of more funding – other parts of the country manage to make more provision for acute hospital services, in more locations and for less funding than this county seems able to do.
• The sense that something is badly amiss – underlined by the RCHT’s £8 million deficit – is strengthened yet again by last week’s news that the shortfall is actually much larger (although the Trust cannot yet reveal its true extent).
• So the time has come to seek a truly independent scrutiny of what is going on in Cornwall’s NHS. This will include a detailed study of fair funding for the county, to correct the effects of the iniquitous Market Forces Factor (which deprives the county of £44 million in much-needed revenue), and of the failure to factor in the costs of rurality. It also needs to include an impartial assessment of the success or otherwise of Trust managers in delivering a health service to meet the county’s present and future needs.

In the event, the committee postponed any decision regarding an Independent Review until July, pending the government’s own report on the Market Forces Factor. (News of the true extent of the RCHT debt and of the steps taken to deal with it will also be relevant to their decision, and ought to be available by about the same date.) Responding to this, West Cornwall HealthWatch said this week:

“We are encouraged that some members of the committee did seem at last to be sharing our sense of urgency about improving our county’s health services. The delay in coming to a decision is perhaps a natural result of their leaders’ concern to maintain dialogue with Trust managers. However, this delay cannot be allowed to stall any hopes of progress in solving the county’s problems. The parlous state of the Trust’s finances will demand inspired and able leadership from its management team if the RCHT is to deliver appropriate health care to the people of Cornwall. In this task, they can only benefit from a comprehensive and authoritative external review. There is no more time to be lost, then, in rooting out the problems and finding solutions.”

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee will meet again on Tuesday 11th July. It is expected that even more people will travel to Truro in support of the call for an Independent Review, and coaches will again be running. Anyone interested in attending should contact 01736 361687.