NHS showcases research, recruitment and new hospitals at Royal Cornwall Show

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board, and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust will be at this year’s show, with the message: “Our future, make it your future”.

Heading to this year’s Royal Cornwall Show? Come and see us at the NHS stand (83) to talk about recruitment opportunities, exciting research trials and our new hospitals programme.

Visitors will be able to hear more about the range of full and part-time careers available across the NHS in Cornwall and Plymouth right now, from clinical to admin roles, catering and apprenticeships.

As well as the chance to have a free health check and take part in a mock research trial involving chocolate, the show is also an opportunity for you to provide feedback or ideas that could help improve the future of health and care services by filling in our quick survey. Not to mention free health checks, giant games and activities for children, and even a bed-making competition!

What’s on at the NHS stand?

Free health checks

Free health checks available at this year’s show include: Blood pressure check; cholesterol levels, via a finger-prick blood test; Atrial Fibrillation check (listening to your heart) dementia awareness in 65 years and over; BMI calculation; lifestyle questions.

These checks will determine if your results are within normal ranges and the action that should be taken. You will also be given a QRisk2 score, which works out your percentage risk of having a cardiovascular disease over the 10 years and gives you your heart age.

Future research

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust will be giving people the chance to experience what it is like to be involved in clinical research, by taking part in a mock research trial involving free chocolate.

Those taking part will be given a patient information sheet and a consent form, before being blindfolded and given two types of chocolate to try. They will be asked for feedback about how they felt when eating the samples, and the results will be used to determine which is the better chocolate.

Following last year’s 3D virtual reality tours of the Royal Cornwall Hospital’s critical care healing garden (pictured above), this year’s visitors will be able to learn more about the Godrevy Project. The clinical trial is aiming to see how effective Virtual Reality (VR) can be on the symptoms and wellbeing of cancer and palliative care patients.

Working with an established VR company, the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust is using a tablet-controlled immersive headset to deliver distraction therapy. The team have filmed a range of local environments to allow patients to ‘escape’ the hospital environment where they often feel isolated and trapped, and this will be on display.

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is promoting the PROTECT study, which is looking at cognitive function. It is open to anyone over 45 who does not have dementia. On Thursday 8 and Friday 9 June, the team will also be joined by someone from the trust’s CAMHS research (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services). They will be looking at the ‘CAMHS goes wild’ project, which focuses on the mental health benefits of nature.

Future hospitals

Visitors will also be able to hear more about our future hospitals programme, including the Urgent and Emergency Care Centre in Plymouth and the Women and Children’s Hospital in Truro. You will also be able to watch a fly-through film to see what the Royal Cornwall Hospital will look like once building work is complete!

Have your say

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care System recently published its 10-year strategy and we are continuing to gather feedback.

Visitors to this year’s Royal Cornwall Show will be able to fill in our special survey, covering ways to improve our health and care services and the new hospital building projects in Cornwall and Plymouth.

We will also be running our Community Conversation events across the summer, so please talk to the team if you would like us to attend your event!

Fun and freebies!

A range of giant game will be on offer at this year’s stand, including giant Jenga and Connect Four. There will also be a colouring competition, fancy dress opportunity and a bed-making competition with a prize for the best and fastest. So, get practising those hospital corners!

As a bit of fun for children, clinicians from Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust will be on site to put little ones’ arms into a plaster cast. Do not worry, the team will cut them off before you head home!

There will also be a range of freebies to take away, from pens to sun cream!