has responded to the news
that the timetable for reviewing the future of West Cornwall Hospital has again
been extended. Speaking this week, members expressed their concern, but not
any surprise, that the Review Managers have failed to meet their targets.
"Twelve months have passed since we first learned of the Review of Services at West Cornwall Hospital. The Review's own timetable indicated that public consultation would begin in August 2001; this date was later delayed until November. Now consultation is scheduled to begin next February. The reasons given are to 'allow sufficient time to provide details and give consideration to each of the models that have been developed'. Clearly then, the Review has not yet done what it was supposed to do:
One other thing that the review process has most certainly NOT done is to ask the general public - the "man in the street" - about its needs for accident and emergency care and hospital admission. This entire review has now reached Alice in wonderland proportions. If anyone wrote a book about the situation so far, it would be classified as a work of fiction by the county library.
Just what have the Review Team been doing for the past year that they now require a further six months' delay from their original timeframe? It is becoming clear that NHS Management In Action in Cornwall should be written as Management Inaction. In the meantime, of course, the uncertainty surrounding the future of services at West Cornwall Hospital is inevitably affecting staff morale. Of even greater concern is the plight of the local population, who continue to await news of the future of their local hospital.
We are now told that the public consultation period - required when major changes in services are proposed - will run from 18th February to 20th May 2002. Unless, of course, it is delayed even more.
Co-ordinator: Marna Blundy, 4 Botallack
Moor, St Just, PENZANCE, Cornwall TR19 7QH
Tel / Fax 01736 788107
Email: westcornwallhealthwatch@yahoo.co.uk