PRESS STATEMENT
30th July 2001
PRESS STATEMENT
30th July 2001
,
along with the League of Friends of West Cornwall and Poltair Hospitals, totally
deplores the press statements recently issued by the Royal Cornwall Hospitals
Trust and the Cornwall Community Health Council. These suggested that the meeting
of managers and clinicians on Monday 20th July 2001 would be "intimidated, hassled
and disrupted" by the public.
The effect of these statements, we are told, led not only to doctors in Cornwall
"expressing dismay at plans to bus people to disrupt an much needed meeting",
but also to the electrically controlled gates of the conference hotel being closed and guarded by Alsatian dogs.
These statements clearly demonstrate that both bodies are totally out of touch with the needs of the people of Cornwall, as far as the NHS in the 21st century is concerned.
At no time did the health bodies or Cornwall Community Health Council ("The Patients' Watchdog")check with the organisers of the campaign to ascertain what form the gathering would take. This gathering, which included most of the Mayors in Penwith, was orderly, silent and good-natured, as was always the intention of the organisers.
Furthermore Penwith District Council, the League of Friends and
"…the way local people are being manipulated by the tactics of some of the opposers of any changes to West Cornwall Hospital."
Does she not realise that her "opposers" are in fact the members of the public she was appointed to represent? These opposers do seek change. They require the upgrading of West Cornwall Hospital to meet the needs of the local population for today and the future.
We have to ask if our statutory representatives really understand the needs of the population of Penwith, Kerrier and the Isles of Scilly.
Copies of the press releases from both RCHT and the CHC have been sent to the Minister of Health, Hazel Blears, asking for her views on the statements of her Department's appointees.