TEVERSON CONDEMNS PLANNED CUTS TO CANCER SERVICE IN CORNWALL - POOR OF CORNWALL LESS LIKELY TO SEEK HELP UNTIL IT IS TOO LATE.

Terrye Teverson, Parliamentary Candidate for Truro Falmouth Liberal Democrats, has condemned the independent review to move specialist cancer services for throat and neck cancer surgery out of Cornwall.

Terrye said, "At meeting after meeting local people have asked for this service to stay in Cornwall. Why does everyone have to be moved to Devon? If they want a centre of Excellence can't they make one at Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske. Obviously we want people to have a better chance of survival. The argument campaigners have is that the centres always end up out of Cornwall. Due to our geographical position we can never use the central location argument to put our case. We understand that the more operations that are done the more the surgical teams will acquire additional expertise. But bring people in from richer areas then!"

Terrye continued, "The reality is that in the documents I read it states that people from more disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to seek help until the last minute. They are also put off by travelling long distances, especially out of Cornwall. I fear that this will just mean our mortality rates go up as people just feel unable to get to their treatment areas."

In conclusion Mrs Teverson said, "I particularly asked the question of the Primary Care Trust what additional money would there be for help with travelling expenses. There was no answer given about that basically because there probably is none or patients and relatives will have to jump through hoops to get any."