Cornwall MP backs fairer end-of-life care

2nd September 2026/

For South East Cornwall MP Anna Gelderd, her recent visit to St Luke’s was much more than a fact-finding exercise.

Drawing on her own experience of caring for her mother through terminal cancer, Anna spent time with clinical leaders, frontline teams and trustees to better understand the challenges facing people with life-limiting illnesses in South East Cornwall and their families, and the postcode inequalities that can affect access to excellent and appropriate care at the end of life.

One issue sat at the heart of the discussion – why should receiving a wider option of support depend on which side of the Tamar Bridge you live?

Bridging the gap in end-of-life care across the Tamar

Making her first visit to St Luke’s at Turnchapel, Anna met Tricia Davis, Director of Clinical Services, specialist doctor Dr Kate Davies, Clinical Operations Lead Jen Nicholls, Dr Doug Hooper, consultant in palliative medicine at University Hospitals Plymouth, and trustees Helen Hocking and Lee Budge.

Their discussion explored the reality facing many patients and families in South East Cornwall – including Saltash, Torpoint, Callington, Pensilva, St Germans, the Rame Peninsula and rural villages and hamlets – where end of life care at home can be significantly different, even though residents look to Derriford Hospital as their acute secondary healthcare provider, just like their neighbours across the water in Plymouth, South and West Devon and Dartmoor.

Tricia outlined St Luke’s wide range of community services and explained how the hospice’s East Cornwall Urgent Care Pilot, funded through charitable income, had supported patients and families across a large part of the South East Cornwall constituency during 2024 and 2025.

Understanding the challenges families face

Sharing the story of her mother’s illness, Anna spoke candidly about the shock her family experienced when a diagnosis that was initially thought to be treatable became terminal, and the challenges they faced navigating complex health and care systems.

“You cannot put a price on what you do to support people I represent in South East Cornwall and their families,” she told the St Luke’s team. “I know that there’s still much progress to be made and I’ll continue to listen to the challenges affecting essential services.”

That led to a wider discussion about care coordination and the importance of fast, compassionate support when families are facing some of the hardest moments of their lives

Tricia explained how St Luke’s Coordination Hub – introduced just over 12 months ago – had been developed, not as a signposting service, but as an active clinical resource designed to help people get the right expert support at the right time with a phone call to just one number.

She said the pilot East Cornwall Urgent Care Service had been created in response to gaps in provision and increasing demand from patients who need rapid intervention to remain at home, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions or achieve their wish of dying in familiar surroundings.

Discussing care with Charlotte

Breaking down barriers across the Tamar

Dr Doug highlighted that around a quarter of patients treated at Derriford Hospital live in Cornwall, yet access to wider support services can vary significantly once people are ready to be discharged home.

“The Tamar seems to act as a massive wall,” he said, describing delays in accessing care packages and community support that impact discharge and leave patients spending longer in hospital than they want or need. 

“In the last weeks of life, care is funded differently and we can make a clinical judgment to access that funding. On the Devon side of the border we have an arrangement with the Urgent Care Service at St Luke’s. But in South East Cornwall we regularly have people who don’t get funding in time and die in hospital.”

Dr Doug meeting Anna Gelderd MP

Shaping the future of end-of-life care

Dr Kate stressed the limited availability of overnight clinical support in South East Cornwall, meaning patients may have to wait until morning for important interventions to make them more comfortable.

That resonated strongly for Anna who said: “Those things really matter to a person who is ill and their families.Throughout the meeting, St Luke’s team expressed their desire to work alongside partners across the health and care system, sharing expertise and shaping solutions that make a meaningful difference for patients and loved ones, enabling people to live well until they die.

Tricia said the hospice’s ambition is not only to respond to immediate need, but also to influence the future of palliative and end of life care through its Future Hospice programme and its commitment to improving equity of access beyond the communities it currently serves.

Anna was given a statement showing St Luke’s key asks for government:

Backing St Luke’s ambition for better care

Anna left no doubt about her willingness to back the hospice’s ambitions, saying: “I will continue to work hard to support St Luke’s, so that the team have the resources they need to support patients and families.”

Following the discussion, Anna toured the hospice, meeting healthcare assistants, urgent care staff, Coordination Hub colleagues, clinical nurse specialists and administrative teams. She also listened to members of the team who delivered urgent care support to patients in South East Cornwall during the pilot project.

After meeting Charlotte Crowther, who leads the Coordination Hub service, Anna reflected on her own family’s experience.

“I have been that distressed family member on the end of the phone,” she said.

Visiting the specialist unit

Working towards fairer care for South East Cornwall

The visit concluded in St Luke’s specialist unit, where all 12 beds were occupied, providing a powerful reminder of the importance of the right hospice care for every individual who needs it.

As discussions continue about the future of community hospice care in South East Cornwall, Anna left with a clear understanding of both the challenges facing local families and St Luke’s ambition to help make sure that where someone lives no longer determines the care they receive at the end of Life. Anna added: “Many people in South East Cornwall know just how hard the team at St Luke’s work, going above and beyond to support our loved ones who have needed palliative care. It was a real privilege to meet with them, hear more about their dedication to the job, and discuss what we need to do to build a better end of life care system for all.

“Local families are still facing significant challenges, including travel costs. That’s why I am working with St Luke’s to deliver for residents in South East Cornwall, and I want to see more end of life care closer to home.”.

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