Improvements were found at all three hospitals: Furness General Hospital (requires improvement to good for maternity and requires improvement to good for urgent and emergency services); Westmorland General Hospital (inadequate to good for maternity); and Royal Lancaster Infirmary (requires improvement to good for maternity but urgent and emergency remained requires improvement).

Chris Storton, CQC deputy director of operations in the North West, said: ‘At this inspection, we were encouraged to see widespread improvements across maternity care. We saw staff providing exemplary care who went above and beyond to ensure women and their babies were well cared for. We were also pleased to see improvements in the quality of care being provided to people attending A&E services, although some improvements were still needed at Royal Lancaster Infirmary.'

Scott McLean, interim chief executive, UHMBT, said: ‘Our teams have worked incredibly hard to significantly improve our services and we are pleased this has been recognised by the CQC following their recent inspection. What is especially important to acknowledge is that despite the intense and challenging pressures colleagues are working in - especially in our urgent and emergency care services - they continue to provide compassionate and respectful care. We see this each and every day, but I am pleased it is reflected in the inspection findings as our colleagues deserve to be recognised for their efforts.

‘We are proud of the improvements we have made in many areas of our services but as always, there is still more work to do. The reports highlight some specific areas where we need to do things differently and our teams are already working to make these changes.'