8.4 Strategic Delivery of Health

The Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust appreciates the significance of Royal Cornwall Hospital (RCH) Treliske and the role it has to play for patients throughout central and western Cornwall.  They are looking to diversify their healthcare provision within the County, which will assist in reducing the travel demands on patients.  In order to achieve this, the healthcare provision at Bodmin and Penzance will be increased to handle a greater number of patients.

Currently, a hospital needs to have 400,000 patients in order to provide an accident and emergency department.  Hence the accident and emergency department at RCH Treliske will remain the only location in Cornwall.  The eastern part of the County will continue to be served by Derriford Hospital, which also has an accident and emergency department.  However, there are issues with the accessibility of the Hospital, particularly for residents of the Rame Peninsula, where journey times can be as much as one hour due to the requirement to cross the River Tamar.

The future expectations for the main hospital sites are:

Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro

  • Average growth in emergency admissions has been 8% over the last six years.  Anticipated future growth is 4% per annum.

  • Other services will grow in line with demographic growth.

  • There will be a future impact due to an aging population.

  • Hi-tech treatments for patients will lead to more visits.

Bodmin Diagnosis & Treatment Centre

  • To be run by the private sector.

  • Planned workload to grow in line with Government Policy to expand the private sector.

  • Likely an increasing proportion of the hospital's workload will come from outside the RCHT catchment area.

West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance

  • Further outpatient activity to be increased to avoid travel to Truro.

  • Requires rebuilding of the outpatients department.

  • Projected increase in 5% in surgical elective care.

St Michael's Hospital, Hayle

  • Aspiration to maximise patient through put.

  • Geographical location is not ideal.

There are also proposals for new primary care centres which are likely to be located in Truro, St Austell and Newquay.

The general improvements that the NHS Trusts are looking to implement to improve accessibility for healthcare are:

  • Extended primary care teams, which will remain the essential means of a more accessible primary care service.

  • Enhanced use made of existing community hospitals, integrated with the development of diagnostic and treatment centres and closely linked to specialised hospital provision.

  • Development of Primary Care Resource centres in areas not served by a community hospital.

  • The Truro Health Park providing health and social care services to local residents and serving as a reference model for other urban centres in central Cornwall.

  • Active prevention programmes and extensive use of new technologies.

  • NHS Direct serving as the single gateway to health and social care and as a means of tele-monitoring in patients own homes.

  • Extensive training programmes to enable local practitioners to fulfil new jobs and address changing morbidities.

  • Partnership agreements with patients collectively and individually to enable greater self care.

Despite the above changes, it is still likely that there will remain to be a major reliance on RCH Treliske to meet the vast majority of the out and in patient needs.  Hence, transport investment and travel planning within Truro and particularly on the western corridor will assist in long term needs for access to hospital based healthcare.