A Cumbrian MP who had expressed "deep concerns" about out-of-hours mental health cover in the county is claiming victory.

However health chiefs insist there were never any plans to withdraw cover, despite claims by South Lakes MP Tim Farron.

The issue centres around community mental health assessments, to determine whether a person should be detained.

Two doctors are required to assess a patient, one of whom must be specially trained under section 12 of the Mental Health Act.

In the past, this was mainly carried out by GPs or police surgeons.

But due to shortages of qualified medics, psychiatrists working for the Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) have provided out-of-hours cover for the last seven years, under an informal agreement.

The trust recently gave notice that it was to stop providing the on-call service at nights and on weekends, saying they were concerned about doctors regularly travelling miles across the county to carry out an assessment, having already worked a full shift.

Following discussions with NHS commissioners, who agreed to fund taxis for those being called out, bosses agreed to continue proving the service until January while an alternative was found.

But Mr Farron - who submitted an Early Day Motion to the House of Commons, condemning the plan to remove out-of-hours cover - claimed he had seen leaked information, revealing that the original plan could still be rolled out from this week.

Stephen Eames, chief executive of the trust, publicly denied this, stressing that they were committed to the January deadline.

But Mr Farron has now claimed victory after the trust's medical director, Andrew Brittlebank, wrote to staff confirming that its psychiatrists would continue to provide on-call cover with taxi transport.

Instead he said they were seeking to employ two new doctors.

Mr Farron said: “I’m absolutely delighted that the trust have decided not to go ahead with plans to withdraw overnight mental health workers.

“I understand there are huge problems with recruiting local mental health workers, but these measures would’ve only added to the trust’s problems.

"Taking on two new doctors will hopefully take the pressure off and allow 24/7 psychiatric cover for the most vulnerable of people."

But Mr Eames accused Mr Farron of "misleading" the public.

He said: “This is misleading and incorrect - as we said last week in our statement and to Tim Farron directly there were never any plans to end this service and there never will be.

"We have been clear that we are working through some challenges in how this is delivered and we are grateful to our partners in Cumbria’s Clinical Commissioning Groups and the county council for their support in doing so. Patient safety remains our highest priority.”

However Mr Farron added: “The plans to ends 24-hour care would've had a devastating effect on the people of Cumbria and increased pressure on mental health workers who are already overstretched.

“I am hugely grateful to those clinicians who bravely shared these plans with me so that I could act to stop them happening.

“I look forward to working with the trust to help them fund and recruit new doctors to help them reach a much better solution.”