By EXCLUSIVE Lyn Barton
One of the most high-profile health bosses in Cornwall has quit over plans to move specialist cancer treatment out of the county, the WMN has learned.
Peter Davies, the Chairman of the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust was believed to be upset by the increasing centralisation of services despite a public outcry.
Yesterday morning, he is understood to have handed in a letter of resignation.
Mr Davies, who has been in the non-executive post for nine months, could not be contacted by the WMN last night.
However, it is understood that he was increasingly concerned over proposals to move upper gastrointestinal cancer surgery from Truro to Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital.
It is believed that Mr Davies was deeply worried about the shift he felt amounted to the centralisation of services away from Cornwall. It is thought he felt under pressure to toe the line and felt that the huge public protests had not been heeded by the Strategic Health Authority.
Andrew George, the MP for St Ives, who has been a tireless campaigner against health cuts in Cornwall, paid tribute to Mr Davies as a “very principled man”.
On Tuesday, Cornwall County Council’s Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee will meet to discuss the plans to move cancer services.
Mr George said he hoped that such a high-profile resignation would force them to think very carefully. “I and my other parliamentary colleagues in Cornwall have called for a further review of the removal of this surgery,” he said.
“Peter Davies’s resignation will put a great deal of pressure of the Scrutiny Committee next Tuesday to back-pedal a bit on any decision.”
Matthew Taylor, MP for Truro and St Austell, said it was a shame for the people of Cornwall that Mr Davies felt he had to resign.
“The chairman of the trust, who is there as a representative of the community, has done the honourable thing but it is not good news for the hospital to lose such a talented chairman. If it is the case that senior people have been gagged at the hospital, that is totally unacceptable. The people of Cornwall want to hear from those with the expertise to comment on cancer services.”
It is understood that Mr Davies, a former chairman of Central Cornwall Primary Care Trust and former chief executive of Cornwall County Council, will leave his post at the end of the month.
Mr Davies is the second chairman to resign in just over a year.
Last June, Professor Colin Roberts stood down as chairman of the RCH Trust after 18 months at the helm. Mr Davies was then named as interim non-executive chairman. A few days before Prof Roberts’ resignation, it emerged that the trust was in the red to the tune of pounds36.5 million.
In tending his resignation, Prof Roberts was the third person to step down from the board trust over the past ten months. Under Mr Davies’ chairmanship, the previously beleaguered hospital trust was able to cast off its debts and the title of Britain’s worst hospital.
Earlier this month, the independent watchdog the Heathcare Commission named the RCH as the most improved in the country. There was nobody available to comment on Mr Davies’ resignation at RCH as the WMN went to press last night.
(c) 2008 Western Morning News, The Plymouth (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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