The first temporary GP consultation space has been set up in East Cornwall following a successful appeal for help for suitable facilities.

East Cornwall Primary Care Network issued a plea for anyone that could provide facilities which could be used as temporary consultation rooms during the coronavirus crisis.

These temporary rooms would be used to treat anyone with coronavirus symptoms to prevent the risk of compromising the entire surgery.

South West Water responded and have provided an incident support vehicle which can be used as a safe space for health staff to carry out appointments.

It has been set up at Oak Tree Surgery in Liskeard and the primary care network is hoping to have more similar facilities set up at other surgeries in the area soon.

In a statement East Cornwall PCN said: ’The team from South West Water reached out in response to our public appeal, offering their help and assistance to GPs in East Cornwall. This culminated in the delivery of one of their incident response vehicles. This vehicle will allow our clinical staff to offer on-site consultations to patients with suspected Coronavirus symptoms, without compromising the entire GP surgery.

’The entire team across the whole of the East Cornwall Primary Care Network would like to send their thanks to South West Water and also to every member of the public that has contacted in response to our public appeals.’

Mark Hillson, director of networks and customer service for South West Water, said: ’I saw the appeal from East Cornwall Primary Care Network on Twitter and got in touch to offer a long-term loan of one of our incident support vehicles.

’It lends itself to being used as a temporary consulting room as it is a self-contained unit already set up with handwashing and sanitation facilities on board, so we delivered it to Liskeard last week.

’It’s great to be able to do our bit to help support the NHS and our local communities in a practical way at this time.’

Meanwhile the practices in Liskeard and Looe have also erected large marquees which have been paid for by the Practice Network itself.

These tents will be used as ’drive-in’ consultation rooms for routine appointments such as blood tests, blood pressure montoring and diabetes check-ups, to reduce the need for vulnerable patients to enter the surgery itself and therefore reduce risk of transmission of illness.

By Richard Whitehouse, local democracy reporter

To see a video about how the South West Water van is being used as the East Cornwall area’s first temporary consultation room visit https://youtu.be/4N-o6Zy8yl0