West Briton column 9 April 2020 - Covid update 4

We are now in the third week of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the weather has been improving it has been good to see the majority of people follow the Government’s advice and stay at home wherever possible to avoid further spreading the virus.

I say most, because there are sadly always some people who ignore advice and think the rules don’t apply to them. I have been in regular contact with Cornwall Council about matters relating to the lockdown and have been pleased to see them take a strong stance in terms of monitoring and shutting down, if needed businesses, particularly commercial holiday accommodation that have been flouting the rules, staying open and encouraging people to come to Cornwall. You can now report any business that is doing this direct to the council by emailing businessadvice@cornwall.gov.uk

It is only by following the rules and staying at home where ever possible that we will keep pressure off our NHS, stop this virus, end the lockdown and return to normal life.

In absolutely fantastic news, on Monday we heard that Royal Cornwall Hospitals is out of special measures that were imposed in 2017.

Special measures apply when NHS trusts and foundation trusts have serious problems and consist of a set of interventions designed to remedy problems within a reasonable timeframe.

My congratulations to Kate Shields and her amazing team for the work they have done over time to achieve this status, which is now more important than ever.

In more good news for our NHS, I was delighted to see that the Government has written off £13.4 billion of NHS debt as part of a major financial reset for NHS providers.

In Cornwall this translates to a write off of £42.5million in debt that has grown over a number of years for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust.

Losing this debt will free the team at RCHT up to invest in maintaining vital services and longer-term infrastructure improvements, absolutely essential during both the current COVID-19 pandemic and for long term future planning.

Again I would like to close this column by thanking everyone for doing their bit, whether that’s Key-workers out there on the frontline, volunteers working to support the vulnerable in our communities, or people just simply following the Government advice and staying at home. By working together, we will beat this

My team and I are here to help during this crisis. You can email me at Cherilyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk, call me on 0207 2193713 (messages will be picked up), and my website www.cherilynmackrory.org.uk and Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/thisischerilyn are all regularly updated with matters relating both to the current crisis and other useful news and information. Please do get in touch if you need any help or have questions for me.