PRESS STATEMENT
02.05.04

West Cornwall HealthWatch has responded with astonishment to this week's announcement that the West of Cornwall Primary Care Trust wishes to reduce the number of beds at Helston Community Hospital. Speaking on local radio the Chief Executive of the Trust, Antek Lejk, explained that in trying to address the difficulties of doctor cover at the hospital, they had discovered that one in five beds were occupied by patients from outside the area; therefore, in wanting to cater for local people, it was decided to cut the number of beds by 20%. He went on to say that they had also found that local people could often not get a bed at the hospital because the beds were filled by patients from outside the area.

Co-ordinator of West Cornwall HealthWatch, Marna Blundy, has responded: "There is a serious flaw in the arguments being put forward. If indeed patients are being admitted from further afield, that only proves that the beds are needed - to reduce them will only exacerbate the situation at Treliske and in other hospitals. The whole point of community hospitals is to provide lower-tech care closer to home than in the acute hospitals such as Treliske and West Cornwall. Patients like the more homely setting and the more personal care offered; relatives appreciate the proximity to home when visiting. This is surely the kind of facility we should be expanding, not reducing.

Mr Lejk's final point, that local patients could not access the hospital because the beds were full, made me laugh! If he does reduce the bed numbers, those patients won't be able to access the beds at all, because they won't exist! However, this is no laughing matter. Back in 1998 the Secretary of State for Health overturned a previous proposal to reduce beds in Helston. The situation is no different today - in fact, in many ways it is more serious. Emergency admissions to hospital continue to rise, the county's population has grown, and Helston itself is expanding. In particular, we have a demographic "time bomb" ticking away, with the numbers of elderly people rising more rapidly - this has particular implications for health planning. Indeed, It could be suggested that Helston should have a larger bed capacity, not a smaller one.

We call upon the West of Cornwall Primary Care Trust to think more carefully about what they are saying, and to realise the implications of their proposals both locally and across the county. This is now the third time in recent weeks that we have heard proposals for cutting the number of hospital beds in the county. The fashion seems to be for patients to be treated at home - "care in the community" - using hospitals increasingly as an outpatient resource rather than for inpatient nursing care. The problem is that many of us are unconvinced that this will work. Shutting down the beds before proving the benefits of doing so, or ensuring that the alternatives are in place, is a risky strategy, where the consequences could be disastrous."