Cumbria hospitals must take 'rapid' action on patient safety

Inspectors highlighted issues with staffing and patient treatment

Two hospitals in Cumbria must take "rapid" action "to keep people safe", the health watchdog has announced.

There had been "escalating" concerns about Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary and the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said.

North Cumbria Integrated Care (NCIC) has been issued with a warning.

The trust, which was already rated as requiring improvement, admitted the pace of change had been "too slow".

The warning notice requires the organisation "to take action to minimise the risk of patients being exposed to harm".

During checks in August and September, inspectors found:

• Emergency department patients "were not always receiving timely and appropriate" treatment

• Significant delays in admitting people to wards

• "Insufficient numbers" of qualified, competent and experienced staff

Professor Ted Baker, chief inspector of hospitals, said "rapid improvements" were needed.

He said inspections had been carried out as "there were escalating numbers of concerns and some evidence of harm that required intervention in order to keep both patients and staff safe".

While "assured" the trust was taking steps to address the issues, he added "it is also clear that there are several factors within the local health and social care system that are impacting on this trust from improving as quickly as we want them to".

NCIC was formed in October 2019 following the acquisition of the heavily criticised North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust by the Cumbria Partnership Foundation Trust and carried over its CQC rating.

Chief executive Lyn Simpson said: "The report shows the plans we have in place are the right ones, but the pace of change has been too slow.

"The inspection in the summer enabled us to identify immediate actions we needed to take to ensure patients can access appropriate care and treatment in a more timely way."

Chief nurse Anna Stabler said more than 100 agency nurses had been brought in to tackle shortages and another 37 nurses recruited from abroad were due to be working on wards by March.