LABOUR Party supporters took to the streets of Launceston and Bude on Saturday to warn people that community hospitals could be at risk of closure.

The Post has previously reported on the local Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), recently published by health and care organisations in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, in response to the NHS England Five Year Forward View and Devolution Deal for Cornwall.

According to the outline plan, a reduction in the number of hospital beds and community hospital sites in Cornwall could be on the cards.

Members of the Launceston branch of the North Cornwall Constituency Labour Party were handing out leaflets and gathering signatures for a petition in the town square on Saturday, while members of the Bude branch did the same in the town’s triangle.

It was part of Labour’s national campaign day on the NHS and social care. The petition, which was signed by members of the public in Launceston, read: “We, the undersigned, oppose all cuts to community health and community care services in Cornwall including any plan to close Launceston Community Hospital and its Minor Injury Unit.”

Carl Bradley-Hughes, the convener of promotions working group for the Launceston Labour branch, said: “It would appear that we would not only lose the minor injury unit, but the entire hospital.

“We need to raise the profile of the issue.”

The Post asked whether, from reading the STP, the local Labour branch thought community hospitals would close.

Mr Bradley-Hughes said: “We are almost certain. We went to a public meeting in Liskeard and they would not answer our questions directly.

“They are going to close 14 community hospitals and open three centres of excellence, as they call it. Where we are, we’re not going to be served at all.”

On Launceston’s hospital specifically, he added: “The land was gifted to the town, it belongs to the town. We are not going to let them take it away from us.

“It’s not just the minor injury unit we’re going to lose it’s all the outpatient clinics.”

With personal experience of the clinics available at Launceston Hospital, Mr Bradley-Hughes said he recently attended a community event regarding the STP at Liskeard. At this event he said he asked where patients could go if Launceston Hospital closed. He said they suggested Okehampton Hospital, but Mr Bradley-Hughes rasied concerns that this hospital too could be under threat of closure.

He added: “When pressed they said we can always call an ambulance. The ambulance service can’t cope with the demand they have at the moment anyway.”

He criticised the the STP as ‘fundamentally budget driven’, adding: “The money should come from national Government. There’s inequality of income down here, we’re the most deprived area of Great Britain and third in Europe. For that cost to fall on the ratepayers in Cornwall is not fair.”

Lindi Barnes of Bude & Stratton Area Labour Party said: “Our NHS and Social Care desperately need investment. Every day brings another horrifying story; the services just don’t have the resources to care for people properly any more. Yet all we see are more cuts imposed by the government, and more privatisation — people are saying STP really stands for ‘Slash, Trash and Privatise’ and so far I’d have to agree. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

“Labour created our NHS and Labour would give our NHS and Social Care the funding it needs.”

A public meeting was also held at Bude earlier this month — a chance for people to have their say.

Pam Parnell, chairman of the League of Friends of Launceston Hospital, was among those who attended that meeting.

She said: “We got no satisfactory answers. We specifically asked, as did Stratton, about hospital closures and we were told they haven’t got that far down the line yet.”

Concerns raised by members of the public over potential closures of community hospitals were put to Garth Davies, director of communications, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, who said: “We haven’t got anywhere near that decision yet.

“We are engaging people on our five year plans. We might be looking at the use of community hospitals and whether we need all we have got.”

He added he understood that ‘people are anxious about it’ but said any big changes would be consulted on later in the year.

Although community events have now taken place, the public can still have their say until Friday, January 27, through a survey, available via www.cornwall.gov.uk/shapethefuture

The survey can also be downloaded and completed from this link, and the public engagement document as well as the full draft outline business case can be viewed.

Questions and comments can be emailed to [email protected]