Where's our new hospital, Cornwall campaigners ask the Government

Political campaigners in Cornwall are asking the Government, "where's our hospital?" Liberal Democrats in the Duchy are calling on health secretary Wes Streeting to confirm plans for the long-promised new Women and Children’s Hospital at Treliske, Truro.

Last year Mr Streeting admitted the £291 million unit within the grounds of the Royal Cornwall Hospital was in jeopardy. The much-mooted project was scheduled for completion by 2028 and is due to combine maternity, neonatal, paediatric and obstetric and gynaecology services into one building, which would serve as the new main entrance for the hospital.

In a letter to MPs last September, Mr Streeting said: "This government is fully committed to an NHS estate that is fit for the future. However, from our first weeks in office, it was clear that the New Hospital Programme (NHP) was undeliverable, unaffordable and estimated costs had risen by billions."

As a result, the Truro hospital was one of 25 projects which were placed under review. However, there appears to be some good news and the Women and Children's Unit could now back on the agenda, though may be built later than first planned.

Cornwall’s Liberal Democrat campaigners are calling on the health secretary to confirm plans for the long-promised hospital at Treliske. Truro and Falmouth parliamentary spokesperson Ruth Gripper said: “This project is vital to give patients and staff in Cornwall the facilities they deserve. Staff have told me how important this project is. The building is old and tired and in desperate need of upgrading. The longer it gets delayed, the more it is costing our local NHS. So our message to the health secretary is, end the uncertainty, get on and give this project the green light.”

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A spokesperson for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Like all new hospitals in the national New Hospital Programme, we await the announcement on the outcome of the government review which we believe will be mid-January."

Jayne Kirkham, the Labour MP for Truro and Falmouth, says there is a light on the horizon.

She said: "A Women and Children's Unit is vital for Cornwall. It would centralise all the services for women and children in a new state of the art building. Maternity care, gynaecological care, paediatrics. Mothers would be able to stay with their premature babies at the hospital. That is currently very difficult as there isn’t the space. Operations that people would previously have had to travel out of county for, could be done on site.

"Even when I had my baby there 19 years ago, men were drilling at the ceiling in the four-bed maternity ward where I was trying to sleep with my newborn son. Cornwall deserves better and has done for years. Women in Cornwall should not be wheeled between buildings in emergencies or taken miles away for operations that could be performed in Cornwall. Our maternity unit staff are top class."

She added: "Two years ago, back in 2023, we took the then shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, to Treliske and showed him the site and the plans and since the election, six months ago, I have actively and intently been pressing him at every opportunity to confirm that the project will proceed in a timely way.

"This week I have received confirmation from the health secretary that he is committed to the Women and Children's Unit in Truro. There may be rephasing of the funding, but I have been assured that it is very much a project that this government is committed to and I am very pleased to hear that.

"We have a spending review to go through, but after that we should be looking at announcing a timeframe, which I will push for just as hard.

"I want to thank the health secretary for the time he has given me. He's very in demand, with a far-reaching portfolio but, true to his word, he has listened and understands what a groundbreaking medical facility will mean to the future mothers, fathers and babies of Cornwall."