MPs in South Cumbria have voiced concern at plans by the trust which runs hospitals in the area to save money by reducing the number of beds available for patients.
All NHS organisations are under pressure to balance their books.
Last year the health charity the King’s Fund was among organisations calling for a fresh approach to enable the NHS to live within its means.
Beds which are said to be under-used at Barrow’s Furness General Hospital will be closed while a rehabilitation ward at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary may also no longer be open if approval is given.
Morecambe and Lunesdale MP Lizzi Collinge said NHS trusts cannot operate in deficit but understood the tough decisions NHS and social care managers faced to provide suitable care for patients.
“My foremost concern is how any necessary changes are implemented while ensuring patient safety is fully protected,” she told Cumbria Crack.
“It’s a fact that too many people are kept in hospital when they could go home with the right support package, so this has to be a focus of the NHS alongside local councils. The deficit can only be tackled long-term by moving towards more preventative work and making sure people can get back out of hospital quickly.
“We all recognise that the NHS remains in a fragile position following some of the most challenging years in its history.
“The Government is undertaking significant work to improve the state of our NHS, including reducing waiting times and delivering over five million additional appointments for patients.
“Ambulance waiting times for stroke and heart attacks have improved too but this doesn’t mean there isn’t a huge amount of work still to do.”
Barrow and Furness MP Michelle Scrogham said she opposed bed closure proposals and once again criticised the trust for the way news of changes at Furness General Hospital was communicated.
“I have received many messages from clinicians and members of the public who are worried that these changes put at risk the safety of patients. I am seeking answers from the trust and raising those concerns,” the MP said.
The trust’s geographical challenges – three main hospitals on sites around Morecambe Bay – was, she said, the reason why the Government granted an extra £22 million a year to help.
But she voiced frustration that trust management were making what she described as short term decisions to meet an arbitrary end-of-year target.
Ms Scrogham said: “Reaching break-even will ultimately mean that the trust has more freedom to invest and improve services to get them back to where they need to be, however we need to have flexibility.
“That target cannot be met at ‘any cost’ and the line that must not be crossed is that the quality of services should not be impacted.”
Meanwhile, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron is urging ministers to intervene pointing out the latest changes follow further changes announced last year to palliative care services in Barrow and ward 6 at Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal
He said: “From conversations I’ve had with the trust, it is abundantly clear that the poor funding provided by central government completely fails to take into account that we are forced to have three hospitals to cover our very large rural area.
“When the A&E departments in Lancaster and Barrow regularly go into Opel 4 – Operational Pressure Escalation Level 4 the highest alert status in the NHS system, signalling extreme pressure in a hospital or health system – and patients wait days for a bed, it is absolutely nonsensical to cut bed capacity.”
Mr Farron said he would be writing to Health Secretary Wes Streeting calling for more support, adding: “With such high pressure on hospital beds, and up to 30% of beds occupied by people who can’t leave because of a lack of social care, this is surely a backwards step which will put social care under enormous strain.”
Ms Scrogham said she would also be lobbying the NHS nationally to offer more help for the trust.
She added: “NHS England has questions to answer. They have withheld deficit funding which is causing short term problems.
“I have been pressing them to reverse this decision. I am not happy that our trust is being penalised for not meeting the ambitious end-of-year financial targets they set themselves.”
