NORTH Cumbria’s cash-strapped hospitals have been fined at least £63,000 for leaving patients waiting in ambulances.

And the figures are expected to be far higher because statistics are only available for two months out of the past six.

Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) governing body heard this week that delays in handing patients over to A&E have a serious financial impact, with a £200 fine for waits of over 30 minutes and £1,000 for each of those taking more than 60 minutes.

Sixteen people were forced to wait more than an hour before paramedics could transfer them into A&E in July while a further 39 ambulance handovers took more than 30 minutes.

This means that for July alone, North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary and the West Cumberland Hospital, had to shell out £23,800.

It was even more in May when there were 93 waits of over half an hour and 21 of more than an hour – resulting in fines of £39,600.

The fines came into force in April as part of the new NHS contract. It means CCGs have no choice but to implement the fines.

The situation has been likened to a financial roundabout however, with money simply passing from one cash-strapped NHS trust to another.

However, Cumbria CCG has stressed the money does not just vanish into national coffers as it is reinvested in the local health economy – in this case being spent on a new ambulance.

An NHS Cumbria CCG spokeswoman said: “NHS Cumbria CCG has applied the national contract including the fines system from the start of the current financial year.

“The CCG has though reinvested all of the money back into the local NHS. Specifically, we have used the money to fund an extra ambulance covering the north of the county since April.

“The local NHS organisations are all working hard to ensure that ambulance handovers to hospital clinicians happen as quickly as possible.”

But the bizarre money manoeuvre has been criticised.

Carlisle MP John Stevenson said: “They are probably ending up with money going round in circles, when they should be concentrating on the strategic issues that matter – which is making sure it works more effectively.

“Logically the ambulance service for our hospitals should be part of the north east and not the north west.”

The north Cumbrian hospital trust is currently forecasting a deficit of more than £40m this year, with it already standing at £23.5m so far.

The hospitals also remain in special measures, with the expected takeover stalled and are among those of most concern to health service leaders.

As a result, north Cumbria’s wider health system is in the process of drawing up a rescue plan via the new Government-led Success Regime.

Cumbrian MP Jamie Reed, who represents Copeland, said: “The issues facing North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust are well documented but we should always acknowledge the great work our doctors and nurses do in providing high-level care in the most pressing of circumstances.

“Performance indicators such as ambulance handover times are an important part of measuring progress towards improving patient care but fines without support for addressing underlying issues are a blunt tool.

“An ambulance handover time can be a snapshot of the pressures throughout the NHS system.

“If social care in a community is under pressure, patients can’t be discharged from hospital, meaning beds aren’t available to admit more patients, meaning waiting times in accident and emergency increase.

This ultimately means ambulances aren’t able to hand over patients.

“While the trust is understaffed and under financial pressure, the funds raised from these fines would be well spent on patient care.”

Ambulance worker Mike Oliver, of health union Unison, said that although they are reducing, waits at A&E are still an issue.

“It has improved but still happens and when it does, when ambulances are tied up in bottle necks, that has a knock on effect on response times,” he added.