Derek Thomas MP weekly column March 21st 2024

I was privileged to meet with the building site manager of the West Cornwall Hospital Outpatient Wing on Friday. The empty houses that have been an eyesore for years are gone and the site levelled. It’s taken a while to get to this point - back in 2019, the then Prime Minister, Theresa May, announced 59 new ambulances for Cornwall and a new Outpatient Department for West Cornwall Hospital following discussions with myself and colleagues about pressure on Cornwall’s NHS. Ambulances arrived but the pandemic, design concerns and rising building costs delayed the WCH development. Together with NHS managers, League of Friends (which had originally looked at funding a new outpatient department), and the Health Department, we secured a renewed commitment last year and work is to be completed next March.

This is not the only hospital building project with Treliske undergoing all sorts of development including the Women and Children’s Hospital initiative and we are in the closing stages of agreeing funding for St Mary’s Integrated Healthcare Hub on Scilly. This creates the possibility for increased local treatment for island residents and provides a purpose-built setting for older people to continue to receive the best possible residential nursing care.

Sticking with our hospitals, I joined staff and veterans at Helston Community Hospital on Monday for the unveiling of the Veterans Aware Status Plaque. Helston Community Hospital (or Cottage Hospital as most of us will remember) was opened just over 100 years ago as a lasting memory to soldiers lost in the First World War. This legacy is not forgotten -: the plaque acknowledges the hospital staff for their hard to support and promote veteran affairs. Over the years I’ve been privileged to attend a number of events at the hospital to mark the service of our armed forces past and present and to support the extraordinary work the whole NHS team do on behalf of patients from Helston and the Lizard in this most precious of community hospitals.

St Ives Community Land Trust have to be the most determined of all those working to deliver secure homes to meet local need. For years they have grafted to secure finance to refurbish flats in the centre of the town - flats that had been decommissioned by social housing providers and sold to the Trust. Every obstacle you can imagine, including hefty council tax bills from Cornwall Council and brutal charges by energy companies, has been thrown their way but finally, using money from the Government’s Towns Fund, homes that local people need are now on the horizon. I joined the chair of the Towns Deal Board and representatives to have a good look around and mark the moment these major alterations begin in earnest. Nature has clearly noted that Government policy is to deliver a net gain for nature recovery with every building project as a fairly established tree has grown up through the downpipe and stubbornly refuses to give up the spot despite efforts of the land trust team!