WEST Cornwall MP Andrew George took the local campaign to support 24/7 opening hours of the Urgent Treatment Centre at West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance to health ministers in parliament this week.  

The service was closed at night over two years ago and Andrew and local campaigners (like West Cornwall Healthwatch) have pressed and petitioned for a properly resourced 24/7 service to be reinstated.

The limitation on service hours at Penzance increases the pressure on the brilliant but already stretched A&E Department at Treliske which is an hour’s drive from many parts of the West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly constituency of St Ives. Long journeys and long waits (often in a queue of ambulances) seriously harm outcomes for patients.

Mr George is a leading campaigner for and champion of West Cornwall Hospital. He was a guest speaker at the AGM of West Cornwall HealthWatch last Friday (October 11). At the annual meeting, Andrew updated the group on his campaign for 24/7 urgent care in Penzance and also emphasised the national need for a properly funded workforce plan to improve both recruitment and crucially retention of NHS staff.

This week, Mr George said to the House of Commons: “Very often, outside Treliske hospital there are more than twenty ambulances queuing.

“This has a very serious impact on the expectations for those patients. Re-establishing the Urgent Treatment Centre at West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance on a 24/7 basis will make a real impact on reducing the pressure on the Emergency Department at Treliske.”

Health Minister Karin Smyth acknowledged the importance of UTC, that the model of emergency care provision is a matter for local decision making and acknowledged that UTCs are a valuable alternative to emergency departments.

Mr George says he held a productive meeting with Royal Cornwall Hospitals’ Trust CEO, Steve Williamson, and senior managers/clinicians at West Cornwall Hospital last weekend when he pressed the case for the 24/7 service.