MP urges ministers to stop NHS cuts after Trust announces ward and hospital bed closures

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron is urging the Department for Health and Social Care to intervene, after it was announced that a Cumbrian NHS Trust is having to make significant cuts to local hospitals.

In a statement released at the end of December, the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust say they are “at risk of not having the required money in the bank by January 2026 to pay the things we need to”. As a result they say this is “leading to some very serious decisions around things like what beds we can provide, what amount of elective activity we do, and what we can and can’t pay for.”

The proposed cuts include closing Ward 23 (rehab ward) at Royal Lancaster Infirmary, and reducing 18 beds across three wards at Furness General Hospital.

Last year, the Trust started measures to close Abbey View in Barrow which provided important palliative care services, and also Ward 6 at Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal

Tim said: “I’m deeply concerned about news of yet more cuts to our local hospitals, and the dire impact that this will inevitability have on patients and hard-working frontline staff.

“Every week, government ministers down in Westminster boast about how much money they are spending on the NHS, yet the harsh cold reality up here in Cumbria is the complete opposite.

“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 and patients wait days for a bed, it is absolutely nonsensical to cut bed capacity.

“‘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.

“I’m writing to the Health Secretary, to urge him to provide the resources that our local hospitals desperately need.”