North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) has taken immediate action after receiving an enforcement notice from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Following an unannounced inspection of the Emergency Department (ED) at the Cumberland Infirmary in February 2026, inspectors found areas of good practice as well as a number of concerns. The inspection team then revisited in March 2026 for a further review and as a result, the Trust received formal notification of a Section 31, which grants the CQC the ability to impose conditions on a provider’s registration.

The Trust takes the CQC’s concerns very seriously and measures have been put in place to respond to the issues identified. The main areas of concern were around the care of mental health patients in the Emergency Department and oversight of patients in the waiting area.

Immediate actions taken include:

  • A healthcare assistant or registered nurse is now assigned to the ED waiting room to improve the oversight of patients while they wait and to identify and support any patients with deteriorating conditions
  • The dedicated mental health assessment room has been reviewed and works have been completed including removal of a sink and new furniture
  • New processes have been put in place to ensure that mental health risk assessments are carried out quickly when a patient arrives in the ED and any safeguarding measures are put in place to protect that patient during their time in the department. A recent mental health assessment audit showed that the department is now consistently achieving 100% compliance with patients receiving an assessment

Commenting on the CQC’s action, Gill Findley, Chief Nurse at NCIC said: “We know that all of our colleagues come to work to do a good job for their patients everyday so naturally it is very disappointing and concerning to receive an enforcement notice from the CQC.

“The most important thing is to take immediate action to resolve the issues raised and to make sure they are resolved on a permanent basis rather than a temporary fix. The team in the Emergency Department have responded really well to the notice and have been determined to make the necessary improvements. 

“We recognise that we need to improve our urgent care facilities at the Cumberland Infirmary. The ED was originally designed to accommodate 30,000 patients a year and we are now seeing around 70,000. That is why we are investing £4m into our urgent and emergency care services to help us to stream less urgent cases to the most appropriate place and free up ED for the critically ill patients. It is important that we provide our staff with the facilities and staffing levels they need to enable them to provide the best possible care to our patients.”

The CQC inspection team also identified areas of good practice during their inspection, including:

  • Staff delivering kind, calm and compassionate care in challenging circumstances
  • Patients provided positive feedback about the care they received
  • Staffing were positive about their Chief Executive and felt she understood the challenges and listened to concerns

Gill added: “I would like to thank the ED team for their response to the CQC’s findings and for delivering kind and compassionate care despite the challenging environment they are working in. I would also like to offer reassurance to our local communities that we take this action extremely seriously and we are doing all we can to improve urgent and emergency care services across the Trust.”