The NHS in Cornwall needs a cash injection of £100 million to restore health services in the county.

The call comes from Unite, the country’s largest union, which says the money is needed to wipe out the trust’s £72 million deficit and add a further £30 million to restore services for Cornwall’s 550,000-strong population. 

Unite said such a cash injection could be used to re-open the temporarily closed community hospitals at Fowey, Saltash and St Ives, and recruit for the estimated 300 vacancies at the trust which currently can’t be filled because of budget cuts.   

Unite regional officer Stuart Roden said: ‘The case for a massive financial injection for the NHS in Cornwall is unanswerable. 

‘Cornwall has six Tory MPs and they should stop sitting on their hands and be banging on the door of health secretary Jeremy Hunt asking for a large financial boost for Cornwall.’