Women and Children's Hospital potential 'cancellation' sparks political row between Cornish MPs
Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, has been told by his Labour colleagues in Cornwall "you don't speak for us" over the controversial decision by Health Secretary Wes Streeting to "review" the future of the promised £291 million Women and Children's Hospital in Truro. Another Lib Dem MP in Cornwall believes "review" is a discreet way of saying "cancellation".
The new wing of the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske is part of the last Conservative government's New Hospitals Programme (NHP). Enabling work has already started on the new "hospital" plan which would see maternity, neonatal, paediatric and obstetric and gynaecology services combined into one building, which would serve as the new main entrance for the Royal Cornwall Hospital. Work was due to be completed by 2028.
Mr Streeting wrote to MPs on Friday saying that the new hospitals' project had become undeliverable, blaming the Tories for creating a financial "vacuum which allowed previous Health Secretaries to allude to £20billion of investment in the NHP that was not there".
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As a result, 25 new hospital schemes - including Cornwall's Women and Children's Hospital - are now in jeopardy and will be reviewed. Others include Derriford Emergency Care Hospital in Plymouth, North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple and Torbay Hospital. There are 21 other hospital projects which have been removed from the scope of the review.
Following the announcement, Mr George wrote a letter to the Health Secretary "on behalf of Cornwall’s six MPs" asking for an urgent meeting over the fate of the Truro hospital.
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However, Jayne Kirkham - Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth - has shot back: "Andrew George wrote a letter purporting to be from all six of us without checking with any of us. He doesn’t speak on our behalf in this case."
Mr George has responded to her concerns, saying: "The substance of my response reflected a pre-agreed collective view, though I accept it wasn’t possible in the circumstances to consult on the precise words or style before I responded.
"We’re still as one on this, as we are on much else. We’ll discuss the niceties of process when we next meet as a group. This is a minor ruckle in the carpet. I’m sure we’ll all be working together and concentrating our primary efforts on getting the new Women and Children’s unit back on track."
Ms Kirkham argues that Mr Streeting's letter means the new hospital builds may be delayed or the scale of the builds looked at again, "not that they’ll never be built". However, Ben Maguire, Lib Dem MP for North Cornwall disagrees. He said: “The Government’s proposed ‘review’ of the planned Women and Children’s Hospital at Treliske - which seems very much like a discreet way of saying ‘cancellation’ - will serve as a severely damaging blow to Cornwall’s health services."
"The Conservatives left the new hospitals programme unfunded with no money left after March and then called an election and essentially ran away. The programme has to be reviewed and may be delayed or the scale of some builds reassessed," said Ms Kirkham.
"Cornwall’s Labour MPs have met with Health Secretary Wes Streeting to reinforce just how important the plans for the Women’s and Children’s Unit are to Cornwall and how crucial its completion is to us here. We will continue to keep the pressure up during the period of the review.
"It’s incredibly frustrating that so many communities relying on new hospital facilities being built have been left in this position by the last Conservative government. There is a lot to be done to fix the mess they have left."
Following our story announcing the threat to the new wing of Treliske, a reader asked in the comments if Perran Moon, Labour MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle was "going to fight this decision or will it be yet another nail in Labour’s coffin? We have only one major hospital in the Duchy and this new unit would have helped to relieve some of the pressure".
He responded: "We have been fighting for our hospital since we arrived in Parliament and found out that the Conservatives had provisioned no funding for the 40 ‘new’ hospitals they had promised. They lied to the public, then ran away for us to clear up their mess."
A number of Liberal Democrat MPs from Cornwall and Devon have launched a petition demanding that the Government reconsiders its potential cancellation of the new hospitals across the South West.
Mr Maguire said: “We can all see the clear legacy of mismanagement and chaos that the Tories left the country with, but potentially cancelling a hospital that planned to combine crucial maternity, neonatal, paediatric and obstetric and gynaecology services is simply not the way forward.
“I speak on behalf of all of my constituents when I say that this planned review must be reconsidered, and will be front-and-centre among us Liberal Democrat MPs in Devon and Cornwall leading the opposition to this decision.”