CORNWALL Council ‘is absolutely not looking to take over the NHS’, its chief executive assured Launceston town councillors last week.

Chief executive Kate Kennally attended the town council meeting on March 20, when she was quizzed on ‘accountable care’.

Cornwall Council recently announced it was decided not to support an accountable care system (ACS) in Cornwall — a system of joint commissioning of health, social care and public health services.

Cllr John Conway said: “My big concern with Cornwall running Cornwall NHS is the River Tamar. If Cornwall care became just Cornwall, what happens to the poor people like us who live alongside the Tamar that rely on Plymouth, Tavistock, sometimes Barnstaple hospital services?”

He asked for assurance that the border ‘is not going to be detrimental’.

Ms Kennally replied: “You absolutely have my assurance on that. Cornwall Council is absolutely not looking to take over the NHS. We are quite busy already without that little matter!

“Twenty-five per cent of the population look to Devon and that will continue.”

She said the council will still look at how to bring the commissioning of health and social care services closer together. She said the council wants to make sure money is spent wisely and ‘that one organisation doesn’t inadvertently push the problem to the other’.

Ms Kennally was also asked about the long-awaited expansion of Launceston Medical Centre.

Eddie Watson, who has been a Launceston resident for 17 years, asked about infrastructure to support the new housing developments.

He said: “Launceston has ballooned out of all proportion since I moved here,” in terms of new housing, but added: “If you get a doctor’s appointment within three weeks of request you are lucky. If you actually get in and get an appointment, it’s ‘sorry, doctor so and so is running 40 minutes late’.

“Nobody in the surgery can give you any answers about when [expansion] is going to happen, if at all.”

Ms Kennally said: “We have a responsibility obviously in looking at where new homes are being planned for to make sure that we have got the right social infrastructure — the health centres, the schools, the play parks, the green spaces — that mean it is a good place to live. Clearly with a lot of the new development taking place in the south side of Launceston, we are wanting to give real attention to this.

“We want as Cornwall Council to work with local areas that we put the infrastructure people need in as soon as we can in the scheme rather than at the end. Quite often when things are being put in and paid for through developer contributions section 106, the problem is sometimes this gets paid at the end of the scheme, to fund the infrastructure that people need at the start of the scheme. As a council we’re wanting to get better at this.”

She said she understood the proposed expansion of the medical centre had been ‘a long running issue’, adding: “There’s been a degree of tenacity that has been required and certainly some healthy doses of frustration.”

She said she advised Cornwall Councillor Neil Burden, chair of the Launceston Community Network Panel, to be making contact with NHS England, the part of the NHS responsible for funding primary care services. She added contact was made with the lead director, adding: “The expansion plans are progressing but what I want to see clarity on is when and how soon.

“We are pushing as your partner with our NHS colleagues to make good on these plans and seek clarity on when they are coming online.”