It could be summer before a decision is taken on whether a public consultation will take place on plans to permanently stop providing Level 3 critical care at Furness General Hospital in Barrow.
Barrow and Furness MP Michelle Scrogham claimed continued uncertainty was making it harder to recruit the staff needed at the hospital and was destabilising other services.
In July 2025, Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, said Level 3 intensive care which had been suspended since September 2024 due to recruitment issues would not return to the hospital.
A campaign by the MP and a decision by Westmorland and Furness Council’s Health and Adults Scrutiny Committee which recommended that a full public consultation should take place on the proposals led the ICB to halt plans to implement the decision.
The NHS arranged a series of meetings last autumn.
Mrs Scrogham said: “The ICB’s warnings about the sustainability of the service are becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“The disastrous proposals to permanently stop providing level 3 critical care at Furness General Hospital are completely unacceptable.
“Our campaign has forced the ICB to repeatedly postpone its plans with the date for their decision on a public consultation now pushed back until May at the earliest.”
The latest from the ICB is:
- The public engagement we ran during October and November 2025 is an important part of the rigorous and regulated legal process we need to follow prior to confirming or launching a formal consultation. We are committed to following the appropriate steps in the process which are needed prior to making a decision to launch a public consultation.
- We have developed a Case for Change that is going through our governance process. This will be published on the ICB website once it is approved. The Critical Care Network have undertaken a further review and their position remains unchanged in that “that the current Level 3 provision – based on stabilisation and transfer – represents a safe and pragmatic solution for maintaining high-quality Critical Care services across UHMBT”.
- Following further engagement with the Clinical Senate we have asked for a second clinical review, which the Yorkshire and North East Clinical Senate will undertake on the Pre-Consultation Business Case (PCBC). The Senate will perform a desktop review and also an on-site review at FGH, which will take a number of weeks to complete. The outcome will inform the further development of the PCBC, which will need approval from the ICB Board and assurance on the robustness of the process and proposals from NHS England as part of the national service change process. This will include a further appraisal of clinically viable options that meet the public consultation criteria and could then be consulted upon.
- This will then require approval and to be taken through our governance processes. Whilst we consider the steps we need to take, we expect that we will be able to confirm our position on launching a public consultation after further discussion on the PCBC, which will take place during May 2026 at the earliest. However, this would be subject to the steps described above and approval from the ICB Board and NHS England and is, therefore, subject to change.
- The decision to ask a second ‘senate’ – an NHS body set up to act as a source of ‘independent, strategic advice and guidance’ – has been welcomed by the MP but with some caveats.
Mrs Scrogham said: “I am pleased that the ICB has now asked for a second clinical review, however, we cannot have a repeat of the mistakes that the ICB made when they did the first review.
“There needs to be significant work so that the exam question being set is the right one and not simply being asked to rubber stamp the ICB’s proposal.
“Most importantly they need to ensure that the clinicians and patients at FGH are given a proper opportunity to feed into the design of the review and are able given proper opportunity to contribute evidence this time.”
“All this time and money could be better invested in getting the service up and running again.
“Once again, I call on the ICB to abandon these short-sighted proposals and focus all their effort into a proper roadmap to restoring Level 3 critical care at Furness General Hospital.”
