Doubling the number of beds at Brampton’s community hospital is one of the ways community leaders hope it can secure its future.

The suggestion was made by Brampton parish council in response to proposals by the Success Regime – a government body appointed to transform the area’s struggling and debt-stricken health system – to close some or all of the beds at community hospitals in north Cumbria.

Parish council chairman David Moorat, a former health official, told councillors: “Their proposal at the moment is to reduce and, in fact, have no beds at all in Brampton.”

He explained how caring for people in the community can be costly, particularly if a patient who lives in a rural area needs to be seen more than once a day.

“Community staff therefore spend almost 40 per cent of their time not with a patient so it’s not a cost-effective solution,” said Mr Moorat. “The problem is, the economics of looking after people in beds is not a viable proposition unless you have a minimum of 30 beds.

“The amount of staff you need to look after 15 patients is almost the same as you need to look after 30.”

Councillor Keith Read-Bone said: “Quite seriously if there is any possibility of increasing the beds from 15 to 30 then we should do it.

“They say they need to care for the elderly and if they’re going to cut the beds which the elderly use to a point which they can’t be cared for what is it all about?”

Brampton and District War Memorial Hospital, the Success Regime suggests, would become a hub for delivery of a larger range of health services as well as social care and third sector services, along with community hospitals in Keswick, Alston, Maryport and Wigton. They will also lose beds.

In total Mr Moorat said more than 60 beds will be lost in north Cumbria.

The Success Regime aims to mitigate this with the creation of a 32-bed unit at the Carleton Clinic in Carlisle, and expansions of community hospitals in Penrith, Workington and Cockermouth.

There are currently 15 beds at Brampton but not all of them are open as the hospital has struggled to recruit sufficient nurses.

Councillor and vice-chairman Geoff Prest is unsure if recruitment problems would remain an issue even if the number of beds is doubled, but said the Success Regime has not provided any costings for its suggestions.

The public progress report for West, North and East (WNE) Cumbria’s Success Regime states: “Our emerging vision is to develop within WNE Cumbria an international centre of excellence for integrated health and care provision in rural, remote and dispersed communities.

“Our ambition is to see the WNE Cumbria health community become an international beacon for integrated health and care provision for remote populations.”

Councillors think that by removing beds the regime would be doing the opposite, and claim that in the most rural areas of north Cumbria people will suffer.


Lawrence Fisher Lawrence Fisher said: “It’s alright centralising care in urban centres. It doesn’t work in rural areas like this one where somebody’s travelling from the middle of Carlisle out to Gilsland, which is about 30 miles.”

John Harding agreed: “How can somebody from Alston be expected to travel to see a friend or relative at Carlisle.”

“The real worry,” added Mr Moorat, “is that the major cause of this overspending, apart from the national situation, is not the community hospitals, it’s the Cumberland Infirmary and the West Cumberland Hospital.”

Meanwhile, The League of Friends of the Brampton hospital have set out proposals, including retaining the existing beds, to safeguard the hospital’s future.

They believe it should be a focal point for other key services – providing a “one-stop-shop” for patients with conditions such as diabetes, heart and breathing problems.

They want integrated care, combining the skills of social care staff and community nurses and adding to services already provided at the hospital, such as physiotherapy.