Protect Cancer Care in Cornwall

We at 38 Degrees St Ives Branch, and the Cornwall Cancer Team, find the proposals without merit. Many cancer patients will have to travel much further for treatment every day for a number of weeks. This will be detrimental to their recovery and it is doubtful that all sick patients will even undertake such a venture and may instead opt for a more detrimental treatment or even no formal treatment at all. More people will die as a result.

The travelling regime of a potentially two hundred miles plus journey for treatment every day (a 6-hour minimum round trip per day from W Cornwall) over 6-7 weeks will not aid recovery. Also travel costs reimbursement schemes and assisted travel have been severely cut. Public transport is not an option across much of Cornwall and is expensive for someone on benefits or pension. This is unjust.

We have over 500,000 residents and the proposed regional centres are for half a million plus, so this shouldn't be an issue in any case. Such a plan also ignores the distinctive demographics and geography of Cornwall and that RCHT in Truro already provides (and paid for) equipment and expertise, which will consequently be under utilised. We have a good, modern facility here in Cornwall which needs to be used to capacity, not under utilised due to a centralising cutting exercise because we fall a little below the numbers threshold - we have unique geographic, demographic and economic constraints in Cornwall which mean we need our own facility left intact.