Andrew Lansley, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, paid a visit to West Cornwall recently to meet senior health professionals.  The Conservative Health Spokesman expressed his concern following the very public unrest regarding the shift of some cancer services from Cornwall and changes to the senior management team at Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT).
   
Derek Thomas, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, invited Dr Francis Old and Bob Boyce, (both members of the West Cornwall Commissioning Group) to have lunch with Andrew Lansley and Sarah Newton, Parliamentary Candidate for Truro and Falmouth, who organised the visit.

Dr Old and Mr Boyce spoke of the frustrations caused by a top-down approach to commissioning healthcare in West Cornwall.  Dr Old used this unique opportunity to stress that an incoming government must listen to local GPs if they want to deliver healthcare as ‘close to home as possible’. It was agreed that real budgets must be devolved to the local level so that health professionals who are in constant contact with their patients can decide for themselves what and how healthcare is commissioned.  Resource allocation in Cornwall can then take into account local need in particular the increasing healthcare demands of an ageing population.

Derek Thomas said “Our priority is to provide people with the right treatment in the right place and at the right time.  This will only be achieved if we maintain a dialogue with our GPs.  They are the experts on the ground and I want to see Cornish GPs given power to shape local services.  This is far more effective than the current top-down approach”

The Shadow Secretary for Health and local parliamentary candidates went on to meet with Martin Watts, Chairman and Peter Colclough, the Acting Chief Executive of RCHT.

The Conservative team were told that, for the first time ever, the RCHT has begun to prepare a 5-10 year strategy for the Hospitals Trust and should be completed by 31st October 2009.  The publication of the plan should provide much needed clarity following years of disruption and unrest within the Trust.  This strategy includes the plan to carry out a further 500 operations at West Cornwall Hospital along with increasing other services. Mr Watts and Mr Colclough confirmed their determination to put RCHT on a sound footing so that it could apply for Foundation status.  Andrew Lansley is committed to Foundation Hospital Status for Trust such as RCHT saying that it is the only way to give local people an effective voice regarding health care delivery.

Derek concluded “There is a significant need to restore confidence in the Hospitals Trust.  Good work is being done to improve services however the senior managers said it would take 24 months before the public would experience the true benefit of many of the plans in place.  The greatest opportunity facing us in West Cornwall is the proposal to achieve Foundation Status.  This will give you and I a real say in how healthcare is delivered.  Every effort must be made to this end”.

Andrew Lansley has made a number of visits to Cornwall since being made Shadow Secretary of State for Health.  Cornwall presents unique challenges to modern health provision due to its rural nature and thinly-spread population.