Major Incident declared at Cumberland Infirmary and affecting WCH

The News and Star website reports this morning that a major internal incident has been declared at north Cumbria's hospitals by the Trust in charge of the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and the West Cumberland Hospital.

 

The News & Star has learned that staff were called to a meeting at 3pm yesterday, at which they were told that the hospital is now at "escalation number five", which is an internal major incident.

A spokeswoman for North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust told the News & Star that the declaration is across the trust, but the Carlisle hospital is more acutely affected.

The News and Star says that the hospital simply ran out of beds yesterday afternoon, and had no option but to declare an emergency and call for help from its partner agencies.

A full statement from the trust and HS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group is expected later.