In January the Sunrise Appeal launched a campaign to RETAIN all the services provided by the Sunrise Centre at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro for Cornish cancer patients.
NHS England were considering a plan which could have resulted in a significant number of patients from Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly being forced to travel out of the County for treatment. These plans went out for public consultation at the end of 2017.
Our campaign was supported by the Cornish MP’s and Laurence Reed through BBC Radio Cornwall and, far more importantly, by the people of Cornwall.
11,000 of 12,000 responses to the public consultation across the UK were from the South West region. The majority of responses coming from Cornwall. This was the largest response NHS England has ever had for any public consultation and reflects how much the people of Cornwall value having top quality radiotherapy services here in Cornwall.
The Sunrise Appeal is delighted to report that as a result of the campaign NHS England has indicated that patients will continue to receive radiotherapy at the Sunrise Centre in Truro as at present. This means that patients will not be forced to travel out of Cornwall for radiotherapy any more than at current levels.
This is excellent news for cancer patients in Cornwall.
NHS England has said that their final report will be published later this month or in early November.
The Sunrise Appeal would like to thank all those people who supported our campaign and took the opportunity to respond to the public consultation. It is quite clear that without the extraordinary high level of response NHS England’s plan could easily have resulted in a down grading of the Sunrise Centre and forced patients to travel out of the County even as far as Bristol for their treatment. Instead we will continue to have one of the best cancer treatment centres in the UK here in the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro.
Well done to the people of Cornwall – You spoke and NHS England listened!