No patients are dying as a result of controversial transfers between the Whitehaven and Carlisle hospitals, bosses say.

A new report reviewed a random sample of cases, and found that patients were benefiting from the journeys.

The study comes in the light of local concerns about the safety of increasing numbers of transfers from West Cumberland Hospital to the Cumberland Infirmary. This follows the decision to move emergency trauma patients to Carlisle on safety grounds in 2013.

Those with injuries such as hip fractures are now no longer treated in Whitehaven, instead being transferred along the A595.

Following concerns about the distance, North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust - which runs the two hospitals - carried out an audit of a random sample of patients transferred between April and September 2015.

To ensure its findings were correct, the NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) commissioned an independent review by the North East Quality Observatory Service.

Its report, published yesterday, shows that all transfers they looked at in detail had a positive impact on the patient.

However it did raise some issues about communication, documentation and coordination, which bosses say will now be addressed.

Dr Derek Thomson, medical director at the hospitals trust, said: “Following concerns raised regarding patient transfers from West Cumberland Hospital to the Cumberland Infirmary, the trust undertook a number of pieces of work including a review of all complaints, claims, inquests and incidents since May 2013 in order to establish whether any patients were harmed or died as a result of a transfer.

"The review found that there have been no patient deaths as a result of a transfer."

Dr David

Rogers, medical director of NHS Cumbria CCG, said that the second report was effectively an audit of the trust's audit, to give added confidence to local residents.

It was ordered on the advice of the Northern Clinical Senate, which provides independent advice to commissioners.

The original study looked in detail at 85 cases - 10 per cent of the transfers carried out during the three-month period.

The latest audit reviewed 12 of those.

Dr Rogers said: “We know there is a lot of concern in the community about transfers between the West Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary and we wanted to commission this review to independently assess if the numbers being transferred were clinically appropriate.

"We know that of the 12 cases considered in the random sample all 12 of the transfers had a positive impact on the patient’s quality of life – the vast majority considered unavoidable.

"But there are improvements that need to be made to the process, the documentation and communication with patients and their families."

The next step will be for the trust to carry out another audit later this year, which he said should show improvement in these areas. A patient satisfaction survey will also be carried out.

The majority of patients being transferred are usually suffering from urgent heart conditions, meaning they would be best treated at the Cumberland Infirmary's specialist Heart Centre, or require emergency trauma surgery following a fracture or similar.

Dr Thomson said the latest independent report should provide extra assurance to patients that it is within their best interests.

“This has shown that in all cases, the transfer had a positive impact on the patient’s life which is an extremely encouraging finding for patient care in our trust," he added.

"However, we recognise that use of documentation and communication can be improved and we have already taken a number of actions as a result. We have redesigned and are now piloting our transfer documentation to be more user-friendly for all trust and North West Ambulance Service staff involved, and will be monitoring its use closely once fully introduced.

"We will continue to improve management of transferred patients in line with our action list are confident that improvements will be visible in the re-audit later this year.”

Dr Rogers stressed that these results would have no bearing when determining whether other services, such as consultant-led maternity, should be moved to Carlisle in future.

"This was a specific piece of work to look at the people currently being transferred, and whether they are appropriate for transfer.

"But it's for these areas. It doesn't affect what we would do with other things," he said.