Health chiefs in Cornwall say they “expect a return” to 24-hour urgent treatment being offered at Cornwall’s second largest hospital.
It follows the news that around 125 people each month have used the later opening hours at West Cornwall Hospital’s Urgent Treatment Centre – revealed in the same week as a 2,900-signature petition called for 24-hour coverage to return.
The urgent treatment centre in Penzance has been offering longer opening hours since July, from 8am until midnight, seven days a week, after recruiting more specially trained nurses and locum doctors.
It provides medical care for injuries and conditions such as minor burns and scalds, simple fractures to the arms and legs, cuts, urinary infections and minor falls.
Just like with the minor injury units around Cornwall, people don’t need to make an appointment and can just turn up during the opening times to be seen.
Paul Sylvester, general manager for West Cornwall and St Michael's Hospitals, said: “Opening until midnight has been widely welcomed by people in the West of Cornwall and as soon as we’d made the change, we started seeing a similar number of patients coming to us between 9pm and midnight as we were before the pandemic.”
He described it as an ideal alternative for people as far away as Helston and Falmouth, where minor injury units close at 6pm and 8pm respectively, and even Camborne and Redruth, after the minor injury unit there shuts at 10pm.
Paul said nearly all patients at West Cornwall were seen and treated within four hours, making it almost always quicker than the emergency department at Truro and helping keep that clear for those who need it most.
People in West Cornwall continue to push for the urgent treatment centre to be open 24 hours a day, however, as it was previously.
This week members of West Cornwall Healthwatch (WCHW) met with Kate Shields, CEO of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board (ICB), to present a petition containing 2,905 signatures, all calling for this reinstatement.
During the hour-long meeting, the campaigners explained the background to the petition and explained the widespread support for the centre to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Jan Williams, campaign co-ordinator, said that during the three-month period that the petition was running, WCHW members spent in the region of 23 hours out on the streets of West Penwith, collecting people’s experiences of accessing urgent treatment and listening to their stories.
She added: “The overwhelming message we got was that they need and want the service that they used to have, reinstated.”
Jane Varker, chair of WCHW, said the petition was accompanied by a list of five town councils and eight parish councils that had all voted to support this reinstatement.
The campaigners said the meeting ended on an agreement that the petition would be discussed at the December meeting of the ICB and that Kate Shields would present the petition to the RCHT Board following on from that discussion.
Jane said: “West Cornwall Health Watch would like to send a massive ‘thank you’ to the 2,905 people who signed the petition and all the town and parish councils for their support. We want to assure all those people that the campaign will continue until the service is back up and running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Speaking after the meeting, Paul said that the plan was still to return to a 24-hour service, adding: “Longer term we are still committed to resuming opening our urgent treatment centre 24 hours a day and are working hard on the best way to safely staff the unit around the clock and to recruit to the additional posts that would be needed.”
Kate Shields, chief executive for NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board, said: "The Urgent Treatment Centre at West Cornwall Hospital is commissioned to operate 24 hours a day. “It currently provides an invaluable service every day of the week from 8am until midnight to help with injuries that need attention urgently but are not critical or life-threatening. We expect it to return to a 24-hour service.”
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