Commenting at the weekend after meeting hospital officials regarding plans to establish an Enhanced Urgent Care Service at West Cornwall Hospital, local MP, Andrew George, said:
“This is a welcome step in the right direction. It doesn’t give local campaigners all that they have asked for. So the champagne will have to be kept on ice a little longer.
“Above all, patient safety has to be paramount and that clearly underpins these proposals. Creating a better understanding regarding the use of junior doctors from the medical wards to provide cover at night for the casualty service and the co-operative working of a GP Urgent Care Centre working for five hours every afternoon, the prospect of creating a stable environment will be a boon to the nurses who are the backbone of the casualty service at West Cornwall Hospital.
“We need to get the balance right, especially within the medium term plan which will be put together by the Hospitals Trust in the coming months. Of course it could be dangerous to bring the majority of emergencies to West Cornwall Hospital. But, it would be equally dangerous to put all of the Trust’s eggs in one basket at Treliske, and to see West Cornwall bypassed. It is very risky to have just one major trauma centre in a long thin peninsula like Cornwall; especially for those communities which are most cut off – i.e. in the west.
“It is important that the pilot confirms that we need to establish plans for a clinically safe balance for the management of urgent care and emergencies between West Cornwall Hospital and Treliske”