In this week's highlights from The RCHT Radio Show: 18 July 2023.

• We learn about a new service for radiotherapy patients
• Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust has won a gold level defence employer award
• We’ll hear from our lead physio who attended the PJ paralysis summit
• We’ve got some good news about West Cornwall Hospital
• And we’ll also get to hear about some of the history of West Cornwall hospital.

You can listen to the show live every Tuesday between 12pm and 2pm on CHBN. Listen on 100.8 FM in the Truro area, online at chbnradio.org or on the CHBN radio app.

I speak with Dr Giles Maskell who as part of this year’s King’s Birthday Honours List, has received the OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to diagnostic radiology.

We look back on his career and get his thoughts on the future of Radiology.

To get some perspective on how far the NHS has come over the last 75 years and find out what’s in store for our future I met up with Steve Williamson, the chief executive of Royal Cornwall Hospitals.

Staff from across Cornwall's health service are sharing memories and proudest moments to celebrate the 75th birthday of the NHS.

They have recorded messages about what life is like caring for patients and their families across the Duchy and Isles of Scilly, including those who have dedicated their entire working lives to the organisation.

Colleagues from the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board are among those featured in this special montage, which reveals what life is like, both on the frontline and behind the scenes.

Over 118,000 people attended the show and present at stand 83 were teams from across the NHS in Cornwall.

Pirate FM have been kind enough to send us the interviews they recorded with our NHS teams so in this episode you’ll hear from our recruitment teams, research, and the new hospitals programme.

1 June to 7 June is Volunteers' week so we thought it would be great to talk about the role of volunteers across our hospitals. Reverend Mark Richards and Verity Barker share with me some of the huge benefits volunteering brings to the patients and staff across our hospitals as well as the meaning and opportunities it brings to those who volunteer.

On a cool December morning in 2022, a crew of experienced rowers from Cape Cornwall Gig Club left Penzance harbour in their training gig. After around 45 minutes at sea the crew started to head back, but 400 metres from the harbour entrance one of the crew collapsed. I went to meet the crew in Penzance harbour to hear about their experience.

Thank you to the Cape Cornwall crew for sharing their story. As Dr Simon Dean mentions, the club are raising money for safety equipment including a defibrillator, first aid and CPR training and general club equipment to make launching and rowing even safer and accessible to everyone. If you’d like to support the team you can visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/capecornwallgigclub

News and updates this week:

• RCHT colleagues return from Future Health Africa Orthopaedic Camp,
• an update on the MRI/Oncology building,
• and what is the NHS Muslim network?

You can keep up to date with the progess of our building projects by visiting the RCHT Building Brilliance Facebook page or by visiting our website.