A PETITION calling for Launceston Hospital to become one of the proposed new ‘urgent care centres’, and for extended and improved services at the hospital, has been presented to Cornwall Council’s chief executive.

The petition, which received 1,410 signatures, was set up by St Stephens by Launceston Rural parish councillors Joan Heaton and Joe Caudle, and presented to Cornwall Council’s chief executive Kate Kennally on September 21.

The Post has previously reported on the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP)/‘Shaping Our Future’. The Shaping Our Future programme is a joint approach by all the major public sector health and care organisations in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly with three aims — improve the health and wellbeing of the local population; improve the quality of local health and care services and deliver financial stability in the local health and care system.

The organisations set out their priorities to transform care in areas such as prevention, integrated community care, urgent care and for conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and mental health in outline plans published in November 2016.

These outline plans state there could a be a reduction in the number of community hospital sites in Cornwall, and they want some minor injury units to become ‘urgent care centres’ — with more senior clinicians and a bigger range of services. However, the plans state they would not be able to ‘afford’ to turn all of the minor injury units into urgent care centres.

At a meeting in June, St Stephens by Launceston Rural Parish Council passed a resolution to lobby for an urgent care unit and improved facilities at Launceston Hospital.

In a follow up letter to Cornwall Council chief executive Kate Kennally, parish council clerk John Conway wrote: “Our commitment to our health provision is clear. We feel that Launceston is significant to both Cornwall and Devon. It is the strategic centre for the east of Cornwall and the west of Devon. Predominantly rural, the population in 2014 was almost 20,000. Launceston Medical Centre has a current patient list of almost 18,000 and needs to expand urgently to cater for the influx of new patients as a result of planned development of a minimum of 2,300 houses by 2030.

“Launceston Hospital is a substantial size with 19 in-patient beds and serves a valuable resource to ease pressure on Derriford.

“Our transport system is very poor indeed and, in some parts of our communities, non-existent. If we did not have an Urgent Treatment Centre in Launceston, our residents would probably travel to Derriford for urgent care, 25 miles away, but certain to be open, that is if they could drive there or find someone to ferry them there and back. Otherwise they would have to call an ambulance, putting even more pressure on our vital services.”

Cllr Heaton said Cornwall Council informed her the petition had been passed on to the chief officer of NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

There have been, and will be, workshops involving local clinicians, practitioners, a wide range of professionals from all sectors and some ‘expert patients’, looking at proposals to transform the way health and care is delivered.

Although the workshops are not open to the wider public, the Kernow CCG has stressed no decisions about the long term future of any service of property has been made. There will be consultation on the STP/’Shaping Our Future’ with the general public next year.

Cllr Heaton has attended workshops, where she said she was able to ‘state the case for Launceston and its health provision’.

She has also attended board meetings for NHS Kernow, and been in contact with the mayor of Okehampton, Cllr Jan Goffey, who has implemented a ‘North Dartmoor Health Initiative’ to create a health hub at Okehampton Hospital similar to the Cornwall urgent care centres.

Cllr Heaton added: “She feels that Launceston and Okehampton could be of assistance to each other as we are easily connected by the A30.”

A spokesperson for NHS Kernow said: “We are considering how all of our services fit into our Shaping Our Future vision to create a seamless health and care system that provides the best clinical outcomes and value for money, based on people’s needs and the money we have available to spend. Once the detail of the service model is clear we can then look to see what infrastructure including estate such as Launceston Community Hospital is required to support this.

“We’re working with clinicians, people working in social care, volunteers, patients, councillors and others to share their expertise and experience to start co-designing proposals to transform the way health and care is delivered. We have not made any decision about the long term future of any service or property, but we are planning phases of workshops during the coming months to help develop our plans. It is these plans part of which are likely to be subject to public consultation in 2018.”