An out-of-hospital care service which was set up amid the closure of Carlisle's 'community hospital' unit has been a success, say bosses.

The Reiver House unit, in the grounds of the infirmary, provided out step up and step down care to those living in the city.

In 2014 a controversial decision was taken to close the facility and instead provide more care in the community.

Elsie Martlew, former deputy leader of Carlisle City Council, opposed the move. She has since claimed it has fuelled bed-blocking in the Cumberland Infirmary, where bosses have admitted delays transfers of care are one of their biggest challenges.

But the Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Out of Hospital team set up to replace it, said that they are actually seeing double the number of patients now than they were before.

The former unit had 14 beds for patients however bosses say the same resources are now being used to treat up to 30 patients. They add that the new approach has saved over 10,000 hospital bed days and almost 500 hospital visits between April 2015 and March 2016.

The Out of Hospital care team is under close scrutiny as health chiefs plan to close community beds in Wigton, Alston and Maryport as part of the controversial Healthcare for the Future plan.

There are fears this will add to bed-blocking and that providing similar care in more rural areas would not be possible.

Claire Molloy, chief executive of the partnership trust, said: “We can see from the figures that it works well in Carlisle, and that out of hospital care is already proving beneficial for our communities.

"We now need to look at this, and recent work in Millom, to see how we can improve care outside hospital in other communities.

"There will need to be different solutions in different communities, there is no one size fits all, however the figures are clear that providing more care out of hospital is proving beneficial to our communities."