Who We Serve

The RMS serves 51 GP practices across Cornwall and Isles of Scilly that generally send patients to the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust, the Duchy and Probus Surgery plus other local community based services. Collectively, these practices have about 450,000 patients who generate about 120,000 first referrals a year; that’s about 2500 per week based on a 48-week working year.

The RMS and its staff are an extension of GP practices, working on behalf patients, in order to offer choice where choice is available.  Sometimes, because of the way services are organised, the choices available locally might be quite limited.  For example, if your GP refers you for a neurosurgery appointment the nearest centre will be Plymouth.  

What happens if you can’t choose?

Your choices might also be limited by the number of appointments available at your preferred hospital.  For example, you may know that you want to go to West Cornwall Hospital for your appointment but there may be no appointments available because they are already full (this is known as slot unavailability).  Under these circumstances we will pass your appointment to the hospital who will contact you to make an appointment.

Also, there are some circumstances when we will try and contact you to make an appointment but if we can’t get hold of you within 24hrs will make the appointment for you and let you know.  This ONLY happens when we receive an urgent referral from your GP 

Operating hours

The RMS does not operate on bank holidays or at Christmas but is open from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Practices in the East of Cornwall, whose patients generally travel to Derriford (Plymouth), are offered a similar service provided by the DRSS.