Urgent action is being taken to tackle major bed-blocking problems at Cumbria’s main hospitals.

Cottage hospital campaigners believe this strengthens their case to keep community hospital beds open.

They say that without them even more patients will end up stuck in the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven.

The North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust (NCUH), which runs the area’s two main hospitals, is currently struggling to meet its targets on Delayed Transfers of Care (DTOC), or bed-blockers, with action needed urgently.

The latest board meeting saw bosses flag this area up as one of their biggest challenges.

Helen Ray, chief operating officer, said the national target is for trusts to have no more than 3.5 per cent of bed days taken up by those waiting for transfer.

In north Cumbria the figure is currently 13.3 per cent, and the situation is deteriorating.

Chairwoman Gina Tiller described the task ahead as a “huge ask” and said: “What it means is we have got wards full of patients who shouldn’t be there.”

The terms bed-blocking and DTOC are used to describe patients who are in an acute hospital bed but no longer require a high level of care.

However, due to problems in the wider system, they can’t be transferred to a community bed or go back home.

This has a knock-on effect on admissions to the main hospitals, where beds are already in high demand.

This week the Government-appointed Success Regime – the body charged with tackling deep-rooted problems across the local NHS – agreed that bed-blocking is a major issue in north Cumbria during a meeting with community groups in Penrith.

Its chairman Sir Neil McKay told The Cumberland News that 60 per cent of patients at the Cumberland Infirmary either didn’t need to be admitted or were there longer than necessary.

But he believes their plan, to care for more people in their own homes with better community support - led by new integrated care teams - would tackle that.

However, campaigners, who are fighting Success Regime proposals which would see cottage hospitals across the area lose some or all of their beds, believe the latest trust board figures show that these beds are needed more than ever.

Community health bosses say they cannot safely staff the cottage hospital inpatient beds due to major nursing shortages.

Last week they said they had no choice but to temporarily close some of the existing beds, including those in Alston.

But campaigners believe they must make reopening them a priority to help with bed-blocking, and find a way of keeping them all open long term.

Eveline Dugdale, of Wigton, heads the Joint League of Friends group.

She said: “It’s bound to lead to more bed-blocking. Without community hospital beds there is less chance of discharging these patients. We can see it, why can’t they?”

NCUH bosses say they are working closely with the Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), which runs community services in the county, and Cumbria County Council, which is responsible for social care, to address the bed-blocking.

Mrs Ray said the joint System Resilience Group is drawing up an action plan.

“Longer stays in hospital, particularly for frail older people, are associated with increased risk of infection, low mood and reduced motivation which can affect the patient’s health after they’ve been discharged.

“We are placing a real focus on this, including the introduction of a frailty assessment unit which means patients can access a specialist quicker, which may reduce their chance of being admitted to a hospital bed at all,” she explained.

Michael Smillie, director of strategy and support services at CPFT, added: “Our collective ambition is to support people in their homes and in the community.

“If we can achieve this then we will ease the difficulties around delayed transfers of care.”

Dr David Rogers, who leads the System Resilience Group, said there are high levels of delays in the county, but other parts of the UK are in a similar position.

Bed-blocking was just one of the areas discussed at the Success Regime meeting at Redhills in Penrith.

Ahead of the meeting a large group of more than 100 placard-waving protesters from Alston Moor gathered to lobby bosses to reinstate their beds and find a way to retain them long term.

There were also representatives at the meeting from the Wigton, Keswick and Penrith community hospital groups.

A number of the League of Friends committees have put forward suggestions, drawn up with local GPs, to show how the hospitals could be better used and their beds retained.