Who we are and what we do

How we fit into the NHS structure

North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust is an acute hospital trust dedicated to providing the best possible care, serving a population of around 340,000 people. 

Our Trust is located in one of the most geographically remote areas and serves the third most sparsely distributed population in England. 51% of the total Cumbrian population lives in rural communities.

Acute hospital services are provided from the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven. The Trust also provides a midwifery-led maternity service at Penrith Community Hospital.

The hospitals mainly provide services to the residents of Carlisle, Eden, Allerdale and Copeland together with parts of Northumberland and Dumfries and Galloway.

In order to provide local access to acute hospital services for a number of isolated communities, we also provide paediatrics, obstetrics and A&E services from both hospital sites.

The Trust also supports a wide range of clinical and diagnostic services located in nine community hosptials across north Cumbria. The community hospitals are currently managed by NHS Cumbria but this will transfer to Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in due course.

The Trust has a turnover of around £200 million and is the second biggest employer in Cumbria with 4,180 staff (headcount).

The Trust was formed in 2001 when Carlisle Hospitals NHS trust merged with West Cumbria Healthcare NHS Trust. The Trust became a University Hospital Trust in September 2008.

Our main commissioner is NHS Cumbria teaching Primary Care Trust) along with the locality commissioning groups for Allerdale, Carlisle, Copeland and the Eden Valley. NHS Cumbria also commissions services from other providers in south Cumbria and tertiary providers in the North East and Lancashire.

The Government’s White Paper Equity and excellence: liberating the NHS, has set out a clear change of direction for the NHS. GPs will take over the responsbility for commissioning services and will form into consortia. Primary care trusts will be desolved in 2013.

Cumbria is well advanced in early discussions with the GP locality leads and fruitful talks have already taken place between GPs and the clinical leads from our own Trust.

Our organisational structure

Information concerning our organisation can be found in the About us section including our organisational and divisional structures.

Senior staff and management board members

You will find information concerning the key people in our organsiation in the About us section under key people. This gives details of our Directors and Non-Executive Directors who sit on our Trust Board.

Working in partnership

The Trust’s key stakeholders fall within these broad groupings:

• Staff
• Patients and carers
• General public
• Professionals
• NHS organisations
• Local authorities
• Cumbria LINk
• Patient Panels
• Voluntary Organisations
• ASWZ – Black and Ethnic Minority Groups in north Cumbria
• Education establishments including the University of Cumbria and the Northern Deanery
• Members of Parliament
• Local businesses
• Media

For more information concerning our activities in relation to our stakeholders and partners, can be found under the heading Working in partnership.

Location and contact details for all public-facing departments

You can find detailed information and contact details for our services under the Our services section on our website. The services are listed in alphabetical order. Select a letter to find out more detailed information.  You can also find information about the specialist Consultants who provide our hospital services.

The main contact details for our hospitals are as follows. You can find out further information about how to make contact with our Trust or raise issues in our Have Your Say section.