Patients offered operations in Wales due to pressures

Patients in Cornwall on long waiting lists will be offered operations elsewhere in the UK in a bid to ease pressure on local hospitals.

It comes after the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) declared the highest alert because they are "extremely busy" with patients.

The Opel 4 alert is issued when a hospital is "unable to deliver comprehensive care".

Cornwall Council's health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee heard on Wednesday that some patients are waiting for operations for two years.

As a result Kate Maynard, interim chief operating officer at NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, told the meeting people will be offered earlier operations as far afield as Wales.

Derriford Hospital in Plymouth has also declared it was at the Opel 4 level alert.

The "system [in Cornwall] is continuing to struggle", Ms Maynard told the meeting, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

She said there was "very high levels" of A&E occupancy in Cornwall and Plymouth.

"It’s overcrowded in there and ambulances are waiting frequently on the forecourts – it’s not good," Ms Maynard explained.

"There are high levels of bed occupancy within the Treliske site and high levels of delay for patients needing to leave hospital if they need support, either in their own bed, their own home or in a care home.

“All of that brings a higher risk of harm, which is what we’re really concerned about."

Of those patients waiting two years for an operation Ms Maynard said they were "primarily neurosurgery spinal patients".

"These are complex procedures and the numbers are reducing," she said.

"We’re also exploring some independent sector capacity outside Cornwall – Devon, Somerset, some in Wales actually.

"That’s available and we have to see if patients would be happy to travel to take that opportunity up.”

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