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Decision day for health services in Cumbria

Councillors are meeting today to discuss plans to close community hospital beds and change care for seriously ill children in west Cumbria.

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Health bosses 'keen to collaborate' with council over bed closures

Some of the region's community hospitals will lose beds. Credit: PA

Health bosses say they are "keen to collaborate" with Cumbria County Council, over the closure of beds at the county's community hospitals.

The NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group released a statement, after the leader of the council called for urgent talks over the plans, which will see the loss of beds in Alston, Wigton and Maryport.

The CCG looks forward to receiving business cases on the alternative proposals for Alston, Wigton and Maryport and strongly supports the continued close working with local communities on this.

We are very grateful to the local community groups and local staff who have led this work over the last six months, and are committed to working with the communities of Alston, Maryport and Wigton, and with Cumbria County Council and Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, to support this initiative over the coming months.

NHS Cumbria CCG is particularly keen to collaborate with Cumbria County Council and build on their experience of community engagement. Full consideration will be given to the re-investment of any savings realised from the changes approved by the Governing Body and we are very clear that unless we have to, for safety and operational reasons, we will not be closing beds until we have completed this work and have robust alternative services are in place.

– Stephen Childs, Chief Executive of NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group
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Decision day for health services in Cumbria

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