Whitehaven: Trust denies West Cumberland Hospital A&E may shut

Bosses at the West Cumberland Hospital say they are "working hard" to maintain services with potential staff shortages

Bosses have denied a hospital's A&E will close at night but warned it "may be unable to provide appropriate overnight cover in the future".

North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCICFT) said "a national shortage" of emergency doctors was threatening services at West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven.

However, the trust stated that there is no threat of the unit being shut down.

It has sought to clarify the situation following rumours on social media.

Large parts of the hospital were bulldozed, rebuilt and refurbished including the A&E department as part of a £90m refurbishment which reopened in 2015.

In a statement, NCICFT said: "We are absolutely not planning to close the A&E department at West Cumberland Hospital.

"In fact, we are working very hard to make sure we can maintain services in the face of potential staff shortages.

"We know there is a national shortage of emergency doctors and there is a risk that we may be unable to provide appropriate overnight cover in the future."

When asked what "appropriate cover" meant, a spokesman said: "We don't plan to close the department at any time... we would potentially have to provide a different level of service but we have not worked up the detail of the plan yet."

Dr Adrian Clements, medical director of NCICFT, told BBC Radio Cumbria: "I don't deny we have some staffing gaps in that workforce but we're working through arrangements that if those gaps materialise there would be a business continuity in place to keep our patients safe."

Dr Clements added that there was a staffing "supply problem" across all areas of profession, including medical, healthcare and nursing workforces.