Warning: Dr Jon Sturman says north Cumbria s hospitals are coping for record numbers of Covid-19 patients HEALTH chiefs in Cumbria say the area s NHS is facing its biggest challenge yet as Covid-19 infection rates continue to soar. The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven are now caring for more covid patients than during the first peak of the pandemic last year and managers say they are preparing for tough weeks ahead. Their plans to cope with the challenges include helping local primary care services plan to deliver the largest vaccination programme in history - as well as running routine services.
Update on maternity care during national COVID-19 lockdown
07/01/2021
The NHS in north Cumbria has released an update for pregnant women on the current maternity guidance during the pandemic.
In line with national guidance, North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust maternity service is currently offering the following:
Partner/one person from social bubble can accompany for all scans
Antenatal appointment â Mother should attend alone where possible
The birthing partner is able to attend with their partner for labour assessment and throughout labour. Following delivery, while the mother remains on delivery suite, the partner can stay. When she is transferred to the postnatal ward, the partner will be asked to leave.
Updated
Covid patients who would have gone to Carlisle in the first instance are instead going to Dumfries PATIENTS in hospitals in the north of England have not been transferred to Scotland, as this story originally claimed. Reports in The Independent stated that Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle has been sending sufferers over to be treated in Dumfries. However, NHS Dumfries and Galloway has stated that this is not the case . Instead, the health board said that patients living in Scotland who would have been sent to Carlisle for treatment have been instead taken to Dumfries. A statement reads: What has been instituted is an approach which sees anyone who lives on the border, but on the Scottish side, being taken to hospital in Dumfries, in Scotland, in the first instance, rather than to the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle.
FRONTLINE staff at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary were this week said to be near “breaking point” as the hospital trust which runs it battled to care for more than 100 seriously ill Covid-19 patients. With the new variant of the virus fuelling a sharp rise in infections across the UK, the hospital has seen a surge of covid admissions, with some patients being treated in ambulances outside the infirmary for up to an hour because A&E was so busy. There are growing fears the worst is yet to come given that the full medical impact of infections picked up over the Christmas period is yet to be seen.