DEDICATED doctors and nurses who have saved hundreds of coronavirus patients are being told their hospitals’ emergency services in Carlisle and Whitehaven are “inadequate” for safety.

That was the stark verdict delivered yesterday by the UK’s national Health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Its inspectors carried out snap inspections at The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital on February 24 and 25, focusing on the A&E departments.

Their assessment came just nine days before Cumbria had its first coronavirus cases confirmed.

Since that happened, on March 3, praise has been repeatedly heaped on frontline staff at the two hospitals, whose care and professionalism has helped nearly 200 seriously ill Covid-19 patients recover.

Yet the inspectors’ report pulls no punches, outlining concerns in particular about a lack of suitably qualified staff - both medical and nursing.

The two emergency departments were deemed inadequate for safety, and in need of improvement for leadership and responsiveness.

Key findings included:

* The service not having enough nursing staff or support staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep patients safe from avoidable harm or to provide the right care and treatment;

* Staff reporting that their biggest safety issue was the lack of registered nursing staff, with some saying they regularly cared for between 10 and 16 patients and rarely had breaks or finished on time;

* Occasions since September 2019 when three registered nurses were caring for the entire department of patients;

* Adult specialist nurses in the department who had no specific training to care for infants, children and young people;

* Not enough medical staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep patients safe from avoidable harm or to provide the right care and treatment;

* Staff failing to do risk assessments for patients, meaning they could not identify or quickly act upon patients at risk of deterioration;

* Staff not feeling respected, supported or valued, and not always being focused on the needs of patients receiving care;

* No effective governance process, throughout the service or with partner organisations;

* At the Infirmary, just four computer terminals for 10 junior doctors, which staff said impacted upon patient care every day (though managers said 10 computers were available on trolleys);

* An environment at the Carlisle hospital which hindered properly managing a deteriorating child, confidentiality, privacy and infection control;

* And no resuscitation trolley with emergency equipment in the Carlisle hospital emergency department’s paediatric area, though oxygen was there, meaning a child in need of resuscitation would have to be moved, delaying critical treatment.

Summarising their findings, inspectors said: “We carried out an unannounced focused inspection of the emergency department in response to concerning information we had received in relation to care of patients in this department....

“Following this inspection, we wrote a letter of intent to the trust to gain assurance regarding the concerns we found in particular safe staffing, timely triage and assessment for both adults and children.”

Bosses at North Cumbria Integrated Care Foundation Trust, which runs both hospitals have been told to take actions to comply with certain national regulations.

During their visit, the inspectors spoke to 17 employees, including managers, doctors, nurses, non-clinical staff.

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.

“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.”

Anna Stabler, Interim Chief Nurse at trust, apologised for standards being below what was required but added: “We are taking this very seriously and aim to improve the experience we give to patients.”

She said that the trust was giving the CQC regular updates, including about an improved uptake among staff for safeguarding training.

Mrs Stabler highlighted the continuing national shortage of nurses, pointing out that 13 per cent of all nursing posts at the trust - 112 jobs in all - were currently vacant.

But trust bosses were - until Covid-19 struck - looking beyond Cumbria and the Uk for suitable staff and had recently interviewed for new paediatric nurses who would work across departments. "There's a national problem around the number of nurses available to recruit," she said. The paediatric area at the Carlisle A&E department was deliberately just five or six paces from the resuscitation room, she said.

Earlier this week, some of the Covid-19 patients saved by the hospitals in Carlisle and Whitehaven spoke of their experience.

They included 37-year-old electrical engineer Andrew Wilkinson. He said: “I am so grateful to everyone who treated and helped me. I’d like to thank a nurse called Hazel who looked after me for three nights as well. All the staff in ITU are so good. They saved my life. They are amazing.”

Also saved was Alan O’Hare, 70, who was a patient at West Cumberland Hospital.

His family issued a statement, saying: "We would like to say a big thank you to the NHS and staff at West Cumberland Hospital.”