University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMB or UHMBT) is an

NHS Foundation Trust A foundation trust is a semi-autonomous organisational unit within the National Health Service in England. They have a degree of independence from the Department of Health and Social Care (and, until the abolition of SHAs in 2013, their local s ...

in North West England, providing services in South

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

and North

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

in the

Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is a large estuary in northwest England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second larges ...

area. It has about 6,000 employees and provides services for some 350,000 people.

Services

It provides services at: * Royal Lancaster Infirmary in Lancaster *

Furness General Hospital Furness General Hospital (FGH) is a hospital located in the Hawcoat area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It is managed by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital, which replaced four local hosp ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

Westmorland General Hospital Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) is a hospital near Oxenholme in Kendal, Cumbria, England. It is managed by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital has its origins in the Kendal Memorial Hospital f ...

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

, where the trust is headquartered. *

Queen Victoria Hospital The Queen Victoria Hospital (QVH), located in East Grinstead, West Sussex, England is the specialist reconstructive surgery centre for the south east of England, and also provides services at clinics across the region. It has become world-fam ...

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

Ulverston Ulverston is a market town and a civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 11,524, increasing at the 2011 census to 11,678. Historically in Lancashire, it lies a few mi ...

Community Health Centre (outpatients). The Trust was the first to deploy

Lorenzo patient record systems Lorenzo patient record systems are a type of Electronic health record provided by DXC Technology, originally as part of the United Kingdom government’s National Programme for IT (NHS Connecting for Health) in the NHS. There is a long history of ...

in the NHS. It implemented

electronic patient record An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically stored health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared throu ...

system Lorenzo Release 1.9 in June 2010. In 2013 the

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. I ...

stated that there had been problems with the Commission's oversight of the trust in 2010, that the Commission had "provided false assurances to the public" and that " tshould not have registered UHMB without conditions", on publication of a report by

Grant Thornton Grant Thornton is the world's seventh-largest by revenue and sixth-largest by number of employees professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms which provide assurance, tax and advisory services to private ...

. Jackie Daniel, chief executive said in June 2016 that she hoped to make her hospital "as small as humanly possible" as part of its new care model plans. Emergency and maternity services are to continue in Barrow and Lancaster, but about 65 weekly outpatient clinics will be replaced by community provisions and beds will be reduced. A new chief executive, Aaron Cummins, was appointed on 1 April 2018, as was Ian Johnson as the new Trust Chair. The trust joined the Waterloo House GP practice in

Millom Millom is a town and civil parish on the north shore of the estuary of the River Duddon in southwest Cumbria, historically part of Cumberland, England. It is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, about north of Barrow-in-Furne ...

in October 2016 to run the business side of the practice as part of the Better Together vanguard project.

Performance

The Trust was highlighted by

NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the ...

as having 3 of 148 reported

never events A never event is the "kind of mistake (medical error) that should never happen" in the field of medicine, medical treatment. According to the Leapfrog Group never events are defined as "adverse events that are serious, largely preventable, and of c ...

in the period from April to September 2013. In December 2013 it was announced that despite the

Furness General Hospital maternity ward deaths investigation The Furness General Hospital scandal involves an investigation by Cumbria Constabulary and other government and public bodies into the deaths of several mothers and newborn babies, during the 2000s at Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow-in-Fu ...

, Cumbria

Clinical Commissioning Group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were NHS organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished and replaced by Integra ...

intends to maintain consultant-led maternity services at

"for the foreseeable future". In June 2014 the trust was placed in

special measures Special measures is a status applied by regulators of public services in Britain to providers who fall short of acceptable standards. In education (England and Wales) Ofsted, the schools inspection agency for England and some British Overseas Ter ...

Monitor (NHS) Monitor was an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health, responsible between 2004 and 2016 for ensuring healthcare provision in NHS England was financially effective. It was the sector regulator for health services in En ...

after safety and leadership were rated inadequate by the

. Services at Westmorland General Hospital were given an overall rating of "good", but Furness General Hospital and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary both "required improvement". In February 2015 it was announced that the

s planned for inpatient elective surgery at Westmorland General Hospital to be transferred to Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital. The trust decided in October 2015 to contract out its outpatient pharmacy services to a private provider. In 2014/5 the trust was given a loan of £21 million by the

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...

which is supposed to be paid back in five years. It spent 7.2% of its total turnover on agency staff in 2014/5. The trust was taken out of special measures in December 2015 after a further inspection.

NHS Tariff

In August 2014 it was announced that the Trust would make an application to

for an increase in the prices paid for treatment by the NHS because its remote location made it impossible to manage within the national

Payment by Results Payment by Results (PbR) is a type of public policy instrument whereby payments are contingent on the independent verification of results. It is being actively promoted by a number of governments for more effective implementation of domestic policy. ...

tariff. In July 2015 the trust was the first, and so far only, to get an increase in the NHS tariff for its services agreed by

because of its "increased costs associated with this trust running health services across multiple sites in rural locations". It will get paid more per episode for accident and emergency, surgery, trauma and orthopaedics, paediatrics, women's health, and non-elective medical conditions. This is expected to increase the trust's income by more than £20 million per year.

References

External links

* {{Authority control NHS foundation trusts Organisations based in Cumbria Organisations based in Lancashire Health in Cumbria Health in Lancashire

Services

Performance

NHS Tariff

See also

References

External links