Healthcare in Cumbria
Healthcare in Cumbria is now the responsibility of Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group.
Contents
History
From 1947 to 1974 NHS services in Cumbria (which did not then exist) were managed by Newcastle Regional Hospital Board which covered Cumberland, and the part of Westmorland covered by the Borough of Appleby and the North Westmorland Rural District and the Manchester Board which covered the remainder. In 1974 the Boards were abolished and replaced by Regional Health Authorities. The whole of the newly created Cumbria came under the Newcastle RHA. Regions were reorganised in 1996 and North Cumbria came under the Northern and Yorkshire Regional Health Authority. South Cumbria came under the North West (Mersey & North West) RHA. Cumbria from 1974 had three District health authorities South, East and West In 1993 South Cumbria was renamed Morecambe Bay District, which also included Lancaster. One Primary care trust was established covering the whole the county in 2002. It was managed by the North West Strategic health authority from 2002 until 2013.
Cumbria CCG took on the responsibilities of the former PCT on 1 April 2013. In March 2016 Amanda Doyle, Chief Clinical Officer of Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group was appointed the leader of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Sustainability and transformation plan footprint.[1]
Public health
Suicide rates in the county are very high. In 2010-12, Copeland had the second-highest suicide rate in England, 15.5 per 100,000 people. The average rate in England was eight people per 100,000. In 2013-4 Barrow saw 251 admissions for self-harm, a rate of 372.9 people per 100,000.[2]
Primary care
There are 82 GP practices in the county. Out-of-hours services are provided by Cumbria Health on Call Ltd.
Community Care
Palliative care is provided by Hospice at Home West Cumbria, St Mary's Hospice, Ulverston and Eden Valley Hospice, in Carlisle which also runs Jigsaw, Cumbria's Children's Hospice. The governors of Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust accused the success regime in April 2016 of seeing services at their community services trust as “a cash cow to solve problems in the acute system” after it was suggested that inpatient beds at community hospitals could be focused on a smaller number of sites or developed as community hubs without inpatient facilities.[3]
Healthwatch Cumbria is an organisation set up under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to act as a voice for patients.
NHS providers
Mental health services in the county are provided by Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Acute hospital services are provided by North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust though some specialist services are provided in Newcastle and Manchester. The North West Ambulance Service covers the county. The low density of population causes great difficulty in acute services. Hugh Reeve,Chair of Cumbria CCG expressed the problem: "If you put the world’s best obstetricians in Barrow, in five years’ time they’ll become deskilled because there isn’t enough work for them."[4] The Furness General Hospital scandal has dominated discussion of maternity services in the area for several years.
Cumbria was named one of the 11 most financially challenged health economies in England in 2014.
In February 2015 it was announced that the Clinical Commissioning Groups planned for inpatient elective surgery at Westmorland General Hospital to be transferred to Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital. Up to six GP practices will be brought together with community services in Barrow at a cost of £12m.[5]
Lancashire North and Cumbria is one of the areas selected to pilot Integrated primary and acute care systems under the Five Year Forward View. [6]
North Cumbria was one of three areas proposed for the new “success regime” by Simon Stevens in June 2015 in which NHS England will work in partnership with Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority to tackle in the local health economy.[7]
Maternity
Maternity services in the county have been a particular problem. There are maternity units in Barrow, Whitehaven, Carlisle, Penrith, Kendal and Lancaster. In November 2014 the CCG invited the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to conduct a review a review of maternity services in Cumbria and the Morecambe Bay area.[8]
See also
References
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