Newspaper Column – The Voice – 14/09/26

• West Cornwall Hospital is a focal point for community pride and passion. We celebrate its successes, admire the wonderful staff, but we take to the streets in tens of thousands when it’s threatened.  

I maintain regular meetings with Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust managers and staff to ensure the hospital gets all the backing I know you all want it to get. 

At my latest recent meeting with Hospitals’ Chiefs we agreed: 

• The Urgent treatment Centre (UTC) is too small and needs expanding. It cramps the ability of staff to give the care patients need. Plans will be brought forward soon. 
• Plans for the redevelopment of the former (now redundant) Outpatients building at “the back” of the hospital must be worked on and shared with the community. 
• More Emergency Consultant posts are being advertised to ensure there’s sufficient Dr cover in the UTC for unplanned urgent cases. 
• WCH is an ideal training hospital for Drs; more training opportunities will be arranged, which should enhance the staff complement.  
• There will be more consultant led sessions in the Outpatient Department – Ophthalmology, Cardiology and Dermatology were all mentioned. But there should be (in my view ‘must be’) more.  
• It would make more sense for the SDEC (Same Day Emergency Care) facility to be co-located alongside the UTC (instead of on one of the medical inpatient wards). This will become part of the plan to improve and expand the UTC. 

Retaining a healthy and fully functioning West Cornwall Hospital is essential to our communities.  

I will continue to press for services to be retained, safeguarded and developed to meet the needs of our expanding population and to take pressure off the main hospital in Truro; which is 35 miles away and a challenging journey on public transport for those in the west.  

 

 

• Should super-rich, foreign crypto-billionaires have the greatest influence over how our country is governed?  

With one of its former Leaders in prison for taking bribes from Putin’s Russia, and the police recently opening a criminal investigation into alleged illegal funding, RefUK, the company (it’s not a membership controlled party) will now receive a staggering £72M, which alone will dwarf all the funds raised by ALL mainstream parties combined at the last general election.  

Without a hint of shame, the company cleverly manages to market itself as the voice or ordinary people, whilst being headed and run by multi-millionaires who do business with the super-rich. Their spokes people assure us one of them is “returning to the UK to comply with the rules”. 

I thank the senior directors of the Trust who have been open and helpful in their meetings and communications with me.  

 

 

• My next open Public Meeting – People’s Parliament – this Friday, 18th September, 7pm, at Union Hotel, Penzance. 

I’ll open the evening with a few remarks on some of the current issues and concerns before opening the floor to your questions. 

To book a free ticket or a chance to raise a question contact beforehand:  

andrew.george.mp@parliament.uk or call 01736 339526.