The decision to close the ICU at Furness General Hospital (FGH) has been met with strong local opposition but chief medical officer said the trust had been left with little choice following a failed recruitment drive.

Dr Helen Skinner, chief medical officer, UHMBT, said: ‘Staffing the ICU at FGH has been a challenge for many years, and despite major efforts, we haven't been able to recruit enough senior doctors to safely run Level 3 critical care at FGH. 

‘Recruiting ICU consultants and specialist anaesthetists is difficult across the country, and FGH faces extra challenges - like being far from major cities, having fewer patients who need Level 3 care, and not being a recognised training site for junior doctors. 

 ‘We've tried many ways to recruit, including advertising nationally and in specialist medical journals, offering roles based only at FGH or across the trust, attending national conferences to promote Barrow and FGH as a place to live and work, investing in new ways of working to attract people, offering up to £30,000 per consultant as a recruitment incentive, paying high finder's fees to agencies to cover rotas and asking nearby hospitals for support. 

‘Even during the temporary suspension we've kept trying to recruit but we have been unable to secure the necessary numbers of substantive senior doctors.'

The trust along with Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB is holding a series of public engagement events about the planned closure from next week.