BOSSES have reassured the public about ambulance transfers between Whitehaven and Carlisle as a new report is published.

They say that the independent study, looking in detail at a random sample of cases, shows that patients are benefiting from being transferred to the Cumberland Infirmary.

However it did reveal that more needs to be done to improve both communication and coordination.

The report was commissioned by the NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) following concern in the community about the impact of transfers from the West Cumberland Hospital.

It found that "the significant majority of transfers were clinically appropriate and unavoidable". Bosses add that the findings show all of the transfers had a positive impact on patients.

Dr David Rogers, medical director of NHS Cumbria CCG, said: “We know there is a lot of concern in the community about transfers between the West Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary and we wanted to commission this review to independently assess if the numbers being transferred were clinically appropriate."