FURTHER upgrades are to be made at St Austell Community Hospital in a move designed to help improve emergency care in Cornwall.

Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) facilities will be enhanced at the hospital and this should help ease pressure on the A&E department at the Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske) in Truro.

The upgrades to St Austell Community Hospital were part of an announcement by Health Secretary Wes Streeting under which the busiest major hospitals with the highest rates of corridor care will receive bespoke plans to help ease the pressure.

The planned improvements to the community hospital will allow it to treat some patients who would otherwise have had to go to Treliske.

The improvements at the community hospital will include five SDEC recliner bays, five urgent treatment bays, a designated ambulance drop-off entrance and a direct pedestrian route to the main entrance.

The planned clinical spaces are in addition to the enhanced capacity created recently through refurbishment works at the community hospital which included a significant upgrade to the minor injury unit (MUI), as well as replacement of X-ray equipment.

As part of the improvements at the MUI, three murals have been painted on a number of the walls to give a more welcoming, calming and positive feel.

Noah Law (Labour), the MP for the St Austell and Newquay constituency, has welcomed the news that the community hospital will see an expansion to enhance its SDEC facilities.

Mr Law said: “This is a phenomenal step forward for patients in Mid-Cornwall who have been facing major issues at Treliske.

“Whilst the expansion of the Treliske site is finally under way after action from our Labour government, the ability to receive care closer to home will be welcome news to my constituents in St Austell, and free up much-needed capacity at Treliske too.”