NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has reiterated that ‘absolutely no decisions have been made about the future number or location of any of our services’, after concerns were raised about the future of Launceston and Stratton’s minor injury units.

Last week, North Cornwall Labour Party issued a press release in which it said supporters ‘are calling on NHS Kernow to disclose more details about how it is planning to close minor injury units (MIUs)’.

The group said the three MIUs in North Cornwall — Stratton, Launceston and Bodmin — ‘are under threat’.

It said it had obtained NHS minutes, using Freedom of Information laws, that it said show ‘health officials considering how patients in East Cornwall could be forced to travel to Devon for minor injury treatment’.

Reports of minor inury units closing in Cornwall have had to be denied previously by senior figures including the Cornwall Council leader Adam Paynter, and NHS Kernow’s chief officer, Jackie Pendleton.

In November 2016, all the major public sector health and care organisations published an outline plan to improve services based on the NHS England Five Year Forward View and Devolution Deal for Cornwall. This programme of work is known as ‘Shaping Our Future’ and is the number one priority for everyone working in health and social care, including Cornwall Council.

Some have raised concerns a number of MIUs could be closed and a few urgent treatment centres (UTCs) placed across Cornwall instead.

North Cornwall Labour Party said it wants NHS Kernow CCG to publish more details of its Strategic Estates Group, which it said is now assessing the value of various buildings, to determine the type of premises needed to house an urgent treatment centre — starting with St Austell.

The minutes from the December 13 meeting of Shaping Our Future Strategic Estates Group read: “The plan is to undertake a desktop review on each possible site to look at building fabric, accessibility, viability etc then enter findings on a report to result in a ranking system from one to five.”

Joy Basset, who lives in Bodmin and who was Labour’s Parliamentary candidate for North Cornwall in 2017, said: “We need to know more about NHS Kernow’s Property Asset Scorecard, and to understand which elements score more highly than others.

“People will suspect that this exercise is simply about saving money — and that rural communities, particularly Bude and Launceston, will lose out.

“The Strategic Estates Group meetings should be open to the public. Their agendas should be published and people should be involved in this process. It is not good enough to simply present us with a league table and say ‘sorry, your hospital came bottom so we’re closing it’.

“Labour says the NHS belongs to everyone, and we should all be involved in any redesign of our health service.”

North Cornwall Labour Party’s press release was put to the Shaping Our Future partners for their response.

A spokesperson for Kernow CCG said: “We would once again like to reiterate that absolutely no decisions have been made about the future number or location of any of our services. 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 estates such as our minor injury units, is required to support this.

“Our plans are not secretive. We are working with clinicians, social care, volunteers, councillors and people who use our services on the re-design of our health and care system. This process is ongoing and the third round of our co-production workshops has just ended. What people tell us will be used to help develop our plans and we will consult with the public once we have developed plans that meet the needs of each community.”