"Budget cuts could cost lives" - Farron

10.15.01am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 10th Apr 2008

Local MP Tim Farron has hit out at plans from the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust that will see £40m cut from their budget over the next five years. The Trust, which runs Westmorland General Hospital, Furness General Hospital and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary has hired accountants Ernst and Young to identify the savings, at a cost of around £75,000 a month for the next four months.

Tim Farron has expressed his concern at the budget cuts, and points to the situation at Westmorland General Hospital where cuts have led to a severe lack of medical beds. Medical patients are being placed on surgical wards which has led to a rapid rise in infections and last week saw surgical procedures halted completely.

Tim Farron said:

"We have seen in recent weeks the chronic lack of available beds for medical patients at Westmorland General, and this is not even a particularly busy time of year.

"Placing medical patients next to surgical patients who are extremely vulnerable to infection is asking for trouble, and we're already seeing the effects of this practice.

"Hospital bosses keep telling us that the proposed cuts at Westmorland General are not motivated by financial troubles. This new information contradicts that. If the Trust is in financial difficulties, surely they should be enlisting the community to fight for a better deal rather than making dangerous cuts in vital local services such as a our heart unit?"