I note Sarah Newton’s comments about Falmouth Hospital and the Minor Injuries Unit. Like her, I have visited the MIU with my family and was given kind, efficient and timely care on each occasion. It is a fantastic service that meant we did not have to go up to A&E at Treliske.

I do not think Dr Levin’s report about the potential closure of Minor Injury Units in Cornwall is written to be “scaremongering”. Due to the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), Shaping our Future and now the potential introduction of a shadow Accountable Care System (ACS), Cornish people are naturally uncertain and worried about the future of their local healthcare services.

The STP did advocate replacing current local MIU facilities with Urgent Treatment Centres along the spine of Cornwall. That would have meant the closure of some local Minor Injuries Units. People are therefore understandably concerned over whether that will materialise and whether their local facilities will be closed. If that is not the case as Mrs Newton asserts, and will not be in the future, then an overt commitment to properly maintaining the excellent healthcare services at Falmouth Hospital would be welcomed.

However, the concern for the future of our local healthcare services is understandable if we look at the way the current government is managing the Health Service nationally. The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt has just taken the unprecedented decision to cancel all non-urgent operations in January and apologised to patients. Medical professionals are telling the media that the NHS is in its worst crisis in their memory. That is not evidence of an administration that has a plan for healthcare, or can say with any certainty what the situation will be next week, let alone next year.

Jayne Kirkham

Former Labour party parliamentary candidate