The Trust was the first to deploy Lorenzo patient record systems in the NHS. It implemented electronic patient record system Lorenzo Release 1.9 in June 2010. In 2013 the Care Quality Commission stated that there had been problems with the Commission's oversight of the trust in 2010, that the Commission had "provided false assurances to the public" and that " should not have registered UHMB without conditions", on publication of a report by Grant Thornton. Jackie Daniel, chief executive said in June 2016 that she hoped to make her hospital "as small as humanly possible" as part of its new care model plans. Emergency and maternity services are to continue in Barrow and Lancaster, but about 65 weekly outpatient clinics will be replaced by community provisions and beds will be reduced. A new chief executive, Aaron Cummins, was appointed on 1 April 2018, as was Ian Johnson as the new Trust Chair. The trust joined the Waterloo House GP practice in Millom in October 2016 to run the business side of the practice as part of the Better Togethervanguard project.
Performance
The Trust was highlighted by NHS England as having 3 of 148 reported never events in the period from April to September 2013. In December 2013 it was announced that despite the Furness General Hospital maternity ward deaths investigation, Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group intends to maintain consultant-led maternity services at Furness General Hospital "for the foreseeable future". In June 2014 the trust was placed in special measures by Monitor after safety and leadership were rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission. Services at Westmorland General Hospital were given an overall rating of "good", but Furness General Hospital and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary both "required improvement". In February 2015 it was announced that the Clinical Commissioning Groups planned for inpatient elective surgery at Westmorland General Hospital to be transferred to Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital. The trust decided in October 2015 to contract out its outpatient pharmacy services to a private provider. In 2014/5 the trust was given a loan of £21 million by the Department of Health which is supposed to be paid back in five years. It spent 7.2% of its total turnover on agency staff in 2014/5. The trust was taken out of special measures in December 2015 after a further inspection.
NHS Tariff
In August 2014 it was announced that the Trust would make an application to Monitor for an increase in the prices paid for treatment by the NHS because its remote location made it impossible to manage within the national Payment by Results tariff. In July 2015 the trust was the first, and so far only, to get an increase in the NHS tariff for its services agreed by Monitor because of its "increased costs associated with this trust running health services across multiple sites in rural locations". It will get paid more per episode for accident and emergency, surgery, trauma and orthopaedics, paediatrics, women's health, and non-elective medical conditions. This is expected to increase the trust's income by more than £20 million per year.
