Under pressure from Liberal Democrat MPs in a Parliamentary debate today Health minister Andy Burnham agreed to take a personal interest in resolving the alleged poor standard of Out of Hours Healthcare in Cornwall (Kernow Urgent care Services).

Matthew Taylor, MP for Truro and St Austell, called the debate following increasing complaints from patients and medical staff over out of hours healthcare in Cornwall, formerly run by local GP cooperative KernowDoc, but now provided by a branch of multinational SERCO.

SERCO have been failing to meet National Quality requirements on standards of patient care, leaving MPs inundated with complaints.

The Parliamentary Team for Cornwall, Julia Goldsworthy MP, Andrew George MP, Colin Breed MP and Matthew Taylor MP, attended the debate to voice their concerns over the failing service and to call the Government to account.

Mr Taylor told the Minister: "In twenty years as an MP I have never had to raise problems with this type of service at the level of parliamentary debate, preferring always to find local solutions instead. However, the fact that so many emergency patients in Cornwall have had their calls unanswered, their treatments delayed, and their conditions misdiagnosed, shows that SERCO's service has not been fit for purpose.

"Having secured parliamentary attention for this has already had wondrous affects, as SERCO has now promised me that the necessary improvements will be made. However, the Government needs to hold its hands up and accept responsibility to patients, and act to ensure that SERCO gets it right, even if it costs the more. If things go wrong, it is then up to the Government to make sure patients are not at risk and the right people are held to account."

Responding to Mr Taylor's request for a personal commitment to resolving these issues, the Minister agreed that he would take a personal interest in improving Cornwall's out of hours healthcare.