More hospital beds were occupied in the first three months of the year in Cumbria than a year before, according to new figures.

New figures from NHS England show 87.5 per cent of 675 overnight beds were occupied at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust in the three months to March.

This was a rise from 85.9 per cent during the same period a year before.

At the Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear (CNTW) trust, 91 per cent of 773 overnight beds were occupied in the three months to March 2023, the same as a year before.

Sarah Scobie director of research at the Nuffield Trust think tank, warned high levels of occupancy can lead to worse patient care in hospitals, and added: “No health system should be running their hospitals this hot."

She warned a lack of beds could "lead to dangerously busy and difficult conditions" in accident and emergency departments, waiting rooms and corridors.

"Frequent high levels of beds in use have contributed to record waiting lists we are seeing now, and there is also evidence that overcrowded hospitals increase risks to patients and link to higher rates of mortality," she continued.

In response, she urged for greater long-term investment in buildings and equipment, alongside improving care services outside of hospitals.

A spokesperson from NCIC said: “Our bed occupancy has been high and this reflects our challenge to balance urgent and emergency care as well as reducing waiting times for our patients. 

!Maintaining safe urgent and emergency care is always our priority and where we are required to stand down routine services to maintain this, for example during industrial action, we have and will do this. 

“The number of people waiting for planned operations/procedures in north Cumbria has continued to drop, especially for those who have waited the longest.

“We now have zero patients waiting over 104 and 78 weeks for a procedure and we are now focussing on reducing the number of patients waiting over 52 weeks.”

Sarah Rushbrooke, executive director of nursing, therapies and quality assurance at CNTW – which does not operate emergency departments, said: “We provide a range of specialist mental health and disability services to a broad range of individuals including children, adults and older people.

“The greatest demand for beds in our trust is within the adult, older people and learning disabilities service areas.

“We have a robust bed management system in place which includes a live system and supportive processes to monitor who requires a bed and their admission is based on clinical risk and legal status.

“We are also investing in a new hospital, part of the trust’s £72million CEDAR programme, which will support the delivery of new care models and ways of working which are proven to aid recovery and enhance patient experience, in line with best practice.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "Cutting waiting lists is one of the government’s top five priorities and we are investing up to £14.1billion in health and social care over the next two years, on top of record funding.

"Over the next two years we are also investing £1.6billion to support timely and safe discharge of people from hospital into the community.”