Health Secretary Backs Cornish Lib Dem MPs Concerns Over Healh Care

5.10.37pm GMT Wed 14th Mar 2007

Health Secretray Patricia Hewitt

The provision of GP services out-of-hours in Cornwall has been slammed by the Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt MP and a Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The five Cornish Liberal Democrat MPs' concerns that local patients have not been properly catered for by Serco, the private contractor responsible for the out-of-hours service, were supported by the cross-party PAC's findings. It called the implementation of the new service "shambolic", and Ms. Hewitt admitted the Cornish service is "not satisfactory".

The Minister explained that the Cornish Primary Care Trust (PCT) had made it clear over a period of months that "if the service doesn't improve very fast and very significantly then the local NHS will do whatever is needed to get a better service for patients."

Colin Breed MP for South East Cornwall said: "The people of Cornwall have been totally let down by an inexperienced private commercial company and an incompetent PCT which has failed in its duty to monitor contracts it agreed. Between them they must address the problems with urgency and both must demonstrate that they can fulfil their contractual responsibilities."

Andrew George MP for the West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly constituency of St Ives said: "The Health Secretary says that "the local NHS will do whatever is needed" but that doesn't appear to be giving Serco a formal warning for unacceptable failure, nor to putting in place any independent monitoring evaluation of the service which needs to "get better".

"What the Health Secretary fails to understand is that emergency public services like this will, in my view, always compromised if the provider has the competing objective of, at the same time, maximising shareholder profit."

Matthew Taylor MP for Truro and St Austell said: "The Minister may have finally admitted that Out of Hours Health Care in Cornwall is in a bad state - but she still hasn't owned up to the part that the Government has played in this mess and the fact that it is their responsibility to sort it out."