Furness General Hospital

Furness General Hospital (FGH) is situated on the outskirts of Barrow. It has around 268 beds. It provides a wide range of services including Accident and Emergency, medicine, surgery, maternity, outpatients and diagnostic imaging, critical care, end of life care, and children and young people’s services, including a special care baby unit.

The emergency department at FGH provides a 24-hour, seven-day a week service to the local population and is a designated trauma unit. However, at the time of our inspection, the most severely injured trauma patients were taken by ambulance or helicopter to the nearest major trauma centre if their conditions allowed them to travel directly. If not, they were stabilised within the emergency department and either treated or transferred as their conditions allowed. The department had only one resuscitation bay and there was no distinction between the cubicles used for patients with minor injuries and those used for major injuries; they were all nursed in the same area. However, plans were in place to address this through the trust’s estates strategy. There were 12 cubicles that could be used for patients with either minor or major injuries or illnesses.