THE EMERGENCY departments at the hospitals in Carlisle and West Cumbria where hundreds of Covid-19 patients have been saved have been rated "inadequate" for safety.

The verdict on the urgent and emergency services at The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven was delivered today by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), whose inspectors carried out snap inspections at the end of February.

Both hospitals are managed by North Cumbria University Hospital NHS Trust.

It was given a "requires improvement overall" rating.

Both hospitals' emergency departments were rated inadequate for being safe and said to "require improvement" for being responsive and well-led.

The CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, said: “We found a number of improvements were needed when we visited the emergency departments at Cumberland Infirmary and West Cumberland Hospital.

“Our main concerns surrounded staffing and safety in the departments. Our findings included that there were not always sufficient suitably qualified staff on duty, staff did not always complete risk assessments for patients and not all staff had the training to report safeguarding issues.

“We fed our findings back to the trust following our inspection so that it can make the necessary improvements. We will return to check that those improvements have been made at a later date.

“The trust is also providing CQC on regular updates on staffing in its emergency departments. CQC’s immediate focus will be on supporting the trust to keep people safe during the Covid-19 pandemic, working with NHS England and NHS Improvement to ensure additional support is in place where needed.”