Keep Up the Pressure on Health Trust, Urges MP

A westcountry MP has called for pressure to be kept on health bosses after new plans for 24-hour Accident & Emergency doctor care at a hospital were unveiled.

On Thursday night, health bosses revealed that West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance, would share A&E doctors with Royal Cornwall Hospital (RCHT) at Treliske, Truro on a rotational basis.

The Penzance unit has been nurse-led until now.

The decision marked a victory for campaigners after years of battling to save services at the site, with 20,000 demonstrators taking to the streets.

Protesters had hoped the new plans would have been implemented by autumn last year.

Andrew George, Lib-Dem MP for West Cornwall, chaired the meeting at St John’s Hall in the town, where hundreds of people turned out.

At the meeting, health chiefs gave a six-month update on the “A Healthy Future For West Cornwall” strategy, launched to improve services for the county.

Of 17 areas up for improvement, health bosses said good progress had been made in nine, seven had been completed and one was ongoing.

Areas included greater range of surgery, a CT scanner and outpatient services.

Mr George said that concessions over the past two years had been secured only after maintaining the pressure on the RCHT and the Primary Care Trust (PCT).

He said: “Most of those who attended the meeting neither gave the proposals the thumbs- up nor the thumbs-down. There were conflicting signals.

“Reductions in the Path Lab service, reductions in emergency surgery and the removal of out-of-hours anaesthetic on- call cover contribute to a sense of a continuing loss of services at the hospital.

“However, the announced planned upgrade of doctor cover in A&E to a 24-hour casualty doctor-led service was welcome and the improved joint working with the ambulance service and better interplay between the Treliske and Penzance sites will certainly help.

“The announcement about investing more in casualty doctor cover for A&E has only come about after I and others had told the trusts that we were disappointed with the proposed arrangements for doctor cover as set out in plans published last July.

“The trust has extended the consultation on the Path Lab to allow for this public meeting and we must keep the pressure up to force the trust to extend the hours of the Path Lab at the hospital beyond that currently planned.”

David Moss, 55, a former patient at West Cornwall Hospital, described developments as a “partial victory”.

“Of course, it’s brilliant news that we are to get doctors around the clock in A&E.

“But this is only a partial victory in the sense that there are other areas of major concern.

“We must fight on until we have the health service we deserve.”

(c) 2008 Western Morning News, The Plymouth (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.