Working with us

Walk out of work into England’s largest national park. Enjoy the freedom of England’s highest mountains on your doorstep. Fish, play or picnic by cool, clear lakes and magical mountain tarns, and be part of a thriving Lake District community. There are villages with inviting country pubs and towns that burst into life on market day. If you like the great outdoors you’ll find Cumbria is a great place to live and work.

Living in north Cumbria

As the second largest county in England ‘big’ is a good word to describe Cumbria. And the word will spring to mind again and again whenever you find yourself at the summit of one of the many lakeland peaks and stare in awe at the sheer beauty and expanse of the landscape. If you love the great outdoors Cumbria has it all, tourists flock to walk and climb the fells, to explore the beautiful villages and market towns and to just enjoy being alive.

But it’s not just breathtaking lakes and hills - away from the lakes there are bustling centres filled with shops and brimming with life, most notably the city of Carlisle and the coastal town of Whitehaven. Carlisle is an historic place and the administrative centre of the county with a unique Victorian market which is home to year round events including international food fairs. Whitehaven is a bustling town and regularly plays host to one of the country's biggest Tall Ships events.

You can read more in our Cumbria Living section.

Working in north Cumbria

We are working towards becoming the preferred secondary care provider for the population of Cumbria and we are well on the way to achieving this. We plan to become a Foundation Trust shortly.

We have consistently received high-ratings from the Care Quality Commission and provide high-quality care to our patients. We are one of the top 40 hospitals in England (CHKS). We serve a population of 340,000 people who live in a largely rural area providing their care from two hospital sites - the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven. This creates challenges for us and we always look towards innovative ways to provide their care. We are working closely with the new GP commissioning localities and are already on the national scene for leading the work under these new arrangements.

We were one of only three Trusts to receive capital funding in the government's comprehensive spending review earlier this year - £70 million towards the redevelopment of West Cumberland Hospital which signals the biggest investment into the health care of West Cumbria for over 50 years.

We are a University Hospital Trust and have excellent links with our education providers in the University of Cumbria and the Northern Deanery. We offer a range of educational training and development packages - please see the dedicated Education and Training section of our website. This includes and exciting Mountain Medicine training programme coordinated by our Clinical Lead for A & E in West Cumbria.

We recognise and reward the achievements of our staff each year in an annual Celebrating Excellent Awards scheme which was a runner-up in the Department of Health's National Communication Awards (2008).

We have excellent communication schemes in place and good consultation with our staff and our external stakeholders.

Lve and train Cumbria logo

Live & Train in Cumbria - click on the icon opposite and this will take you to the Northern Deanery's website for all your career opportunity needs.