It is "imperative" that Helston Community Hospital remains open - but any monetary support must be designated specifically to the town.

This was the view of the panel at last week's Helston Question Time event, when one of the topics raised was NHS cuts and funding.

A question was submitted anonymously asking: "How does the panel see the future of Helston Community Hospital and what should we be doing as a community to safeguard the services it so splendidly offers?"

Mayor Gillian Geer was of the belief that while Helston "absolutely" needed the hospital, if support was given it needed to be kept in Helston, saying: "But if we go giving money that isn't what's going to happen. It will go into a sump and we will never see that money again.

"If we give something, it's got to be absolutely on the nail to what it is [for]. Until they can say that's what will happen and tie it up, I don't think we should give any money."

Ruth McGurk, coordinator of Helston and Lizard Foodbank, said it was "imperative" that Helston kept its hospital, pointing to both the respite and end-of-life care it provides.

"I wonder if there's any way we can ringfence money?" she questioned. "If there was some way we could raise money that was specifically for the Cottage Hospital and its development, perhaps that could work. But I must reiterate, it's imperative we keep that hospital."

Former MP Andrew George said that more than a third of acute hospital beds and nearly half of community hospital beds nationally had been lost in recent years.

"We're one of the fastest growing places in the UK, in Cornwall, yet we're losing hospital places and beds - and our popular is living longer, with more complex medical conditions," he added.