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Listeners to this morning's Breakfast Show on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio Cornwall will have heard the management of the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust telling us it faces a challenge "of Everest proportions" to achieve its goal of Foundation status, which would afford it greater autonomy on budgets, including the capacity to increase the number of fee-paying private patients treated at Cornwall's only large general hospital. The

To become a Foundation Trust we need to sign-up lots of members. Anyone can be a member if they are aged 11 or over. Our members can vote for the Council of Governors or stand as a Governor. How involved you are is up to you. As a member you will:
* have a say in what we do
* be helping to keep our hospitals under local control
* receive invitations to free 'members only' events
* receive regular newsletters
* save money with the NHS discount scheme.

I'm really curious about the bit which says "helping to keep our hospitals under local control." Perhaps I'm missing something, but isn't the primary function of hospitals to heal the sick? So why does it matter so much about the personality of the management team? And will Foundation Trust members have more of a say in the running of our hospitals than non-members? I have asked the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust how many 11-year-olds have so far applied to become Foundation Trust members. Let's hope they belong to that cohort which got good SATS results.