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

PRESS STATEMENT 8 Feb 2004

POLTAIR PLANS ABANDONED

The future of Poltair Hospital has been under discussion for more than a year, ever since it was suggested that conditions there were no longer appropriate. The favoured way forward, a new build hospital, has now been dropped on grounds of cost. We learn in a letter from Antek Lejk, Chief Executive to the West of Cornwall Primary Care Trust, that the projected new build has been cancelled, the decision made not to proceed with formal consultation, the next steps being to "fully assess the condition of the existing premises and to consider the optimum range of services to be provided from the Poltair Hospital site to ensure the active rehabilitation and treatment of patients."

Marna Blundy, speaking on behalf of West Cornwall HealthWatch, the voluntary and independent health watchdog group which monitors health service developments in Penwith and Kerrier, has responded as follows:

"Once again we wonder at the strategic planning of NHS management. One minute the building is declared unfit for the 21st century, the next the 'condition of the premises will be assessed'. We had thought that the priority in healthcare would be the needs of the patients, not the capability of the building or the amount of money left in the coffers. Yet again it seems that patient needs may be taking a back seat.

With the Cornish health service facing a debt of over £30 million, maybe a new build was never a realistic option - in which case, why did the planning proceed so far, and how much did it cost to reach this point? The result of this latest about-turn is that once again patients, carers and staff face a prolonged period of uncertainty. Will Poltair Hospital be deemed fit to take in patients? If not, where will they go? What category of patient will be acceptable? What about the unacceptable ones? Poltair has traditionally cared for some of the most vulnerable elderly members of our community. In recent years it has taken in some patients who previously would have been nursed at Bolitho House. It has also developed its rehabilitation services, to enable some patients to return home. It certainly takes pressure off the acute hospitals, and enables patients to be nursed in a quieter low-tech setting. Penwith residents need such a facility - whether in a new build or the improvement of an existing one. We call on the Primary Care Trust, which is responsible for services at Poltair, urgently to settle the uncertainty and to guarantee the care and service which our elderly patients deserve."

Marna Blundy
8th February 2004