Four beds at Helston Hospital have had to be closed because the trust responsible cannot find a practice to cover them.

The move came as Helston Medical Centre gave three months notice for GP cover on 12 of the 24 beds at the hospital saying it will be too much for its staff to continue with at its current capacity.

Notice was given almost three months ago on the other 12 beds at the community hospital by the Mullion practice and the Cornwall Partnership Trust has temporarily closed four beds, it says, to ensure patient safety.

The trust's communications manager Sarah Fisher said the situation had arisen because one of the practices (Mullion) had previously given notice and their contract ends in the next couple of weeks.

"The second practice (Helston) can't safely cover the full complement of 24 beds and they have now also given notice," she said. 

"To ensure patients remain safe and appropriately cared for, we have taken the decision to reduce the bed numbers by four in the short-term and are putting in some additional medical resource while we recruit."

Helston Medical Centre practice manager Alison Butteril said the practice wanted to make it clear that it was not their beds that were closing.

"Our beds are still open," she said. "We have given notice on them and we actually hope that all of the beds will have a proper sustainable outcome. Rather than just looking for someone to look after 12 beds it should be 24.

"We have no intention of closing our beds and we are still looking after our patients. We are continuing to cover our beds for the period of notice and hopefully there will be a solution in place before the period of notice is over." 

In a statement on its website, Helston Medical Centre said: "Initially we were approached and asked if we could take on these 12 beds in addition to our own 12 beds, but after discussion amongst our partners and staff at Helston Medical Centre, given current capacity at the practice we would be unable to provide cover for up to 12 additional beds.

"The demand on GPs’ time and resource at Helston Community Hospital has changed considerably over the last five to ten years with the changing patient profiles. These days the vast majority are not patients registered with our GP practice and some are actually still quite sick and in need of more specialist medical care.

"GPs and staff at the Medical Centre have been committed to Helston Community Hospital ever since it opened, and this is not a decision that we have taken lightly. In fact, it was with very heavy hearts that we informed staff at the hospital of the decision we have made and the reasons for doing so.

"As a partnership, the GP surgery has discussed at length on many occasions the increasing workload in Primary Care and at the Community Hospital, as well as our existing GMS contract commitments.

"Our capacity to provide the excellent care that we always strive for at the Community Hospital has become increasingly limited in both time and workforce provision. This move will enable us to focus on further improving our core services and patient care within General Practice at both Helston Medical Centre and the Porthleven Surgery.

"We firmly believe that our decision, together with that of the other provider of GP cover will enable the Trust to take a holistic and more sustainable approach regarding how patients are cared for at Helston Community Hospital in the future. We are convinced that this hospital will continue to have a very important role within the community.

"In the meantime we will continue to provide cover to the 12 Community Hospital beds as per our three months’ notice required."

Cornwall Foundation Trust said in a statement issued this afternoon.

"Owing to pressures on primary care the GPs providing the medical cover to Helston Community Hospital have regrettably given three months’ notice.

"Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is fully committed to providing safe and resilient medical cover to the hospital and recruitment is underway.

“To ensure safe care continues to be provided in the interim, the Trust has made the decision to temporarily reduce the bed numbers by four to 20.

“The doctors from Helston Medical Centre, will continue to provide cover for the remainder of their contract and other doctors from the Trust, including the Trust’s own Director of Primary Care, Dr Tamsyn Anderson will provide medical cover to the other eight beds while alternative arrangements are put in place.

“The temporary reduction of four beds will be phased in over the next ten days, as patients become ready for discharge.

“The Trust looks forward to re-opening the four beds and a speedy return to normal service as soon as possible.”