Health Secretary Matt Hancock has taken a whistle-stop tour of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly today.

Mr Hancock visited the Isles of Scilly first, to be briefed on an ambitious project to create a single health and care campus.

The campus would include GPs, a pharmacy and dentist as well as minor injury, urgent care, mental health, adult social are and voluntary sector services. It would also incorporate bedded care, to replace those currently provided by the hospital and Park House.

While there he took the opportunity to thank the team who had been delivering the local Covid-19 vaccination programme, despite the location and logistics of the islands. He also met the local health and care team, including a new baby delivered just the night before.

On returning to the mainland, Mr Hancock met clinicians and managers from the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, where he heard about the recent and ongoing investment into the hospital’s infrastructure, including plans for women and children’s building programme which includes maternity, neonatal and paediatrics.

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Royal Cornwall Hospital is part of the government’s Hospital Infrastructure Plan (HIP). Last year, the Prime Minister announced the details of the 40 new hospitals which will be built by 2030, backed by an initial £3.7 billion.

RCHT chief executive Kate Shields said: “It’s an exciting period for our hospitals and local health and care services. We have our biggest ever investment in buildings and infrastructure happening over the next few years and our plans to work ever closer as an integrated care system give us a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop services that are truly working together for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.”

Mr Hancock was shown the site where construction of new inpatient, outpatient and diagnostic facilities – which will form part of the new MRI and oncology unit – is underway as well as the modular built, progressive recovery unit. Both schemes will release space for future development.

While in Truro, he took time to look around some of the existing areas at the Trelikse site that will be replaced by the new buildings, and to stop and chat to hospital staff.

Mr Hancock rounded off his visit at the St Austell Healthcare GP practice, where he was able to talk to clinicians about their experiences of integrated care and their involvement in the vaccination programme. The St Austell primary care network has delivered 27,541 vaccinations out of the total 551,758 doses delivered since December 2020.

Mr Hancock later shared plans for transforming health and social care with the county’s health and care leaders.

John Govett, independent chair of the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Health and Care Partnership, said: “It was a really excellent meeting with the health secretary and all the health and care partners across the system.

"Mr Hancock recognised that Cornwall is really progressive when it comes to the development of integration across health and care and the new legislation allows us to take it to the next stage as an emerging integrated care system.”