- NHS hospital
Royal Lancaster Infirmary
Assessment report published 30 January 2026
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) provides hospital services
across the Morecambe Bay area - an area covering a thousand square miles in south Cumbria and
north Lancashire. It operates from three main hospitals - Furness General Hospital in Barrow, the Royal
Lancaster Infirmary and Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal.
The Royal Lancaster Infirmary has a range of general hospital services, with an emergency department,
critical/coronary care unit and various consultant-led services. It provides a range of planned care
including outpatients, diagnostics, therapies, day case and inpatient surgery.
We carried out an unannounced inspection of maternity care and urgent and emergency care at
Royal Lancaster Infirmary on 15, 16 and 17 of July 2025. Maternity care is now rated as good. Urgent and emergency is now rated as requires improvement.
The rating for these services has been combined with the ratings of the other services from previous inspections.
The rating of Royal Lancaster Infirmary is now rated as good.
The service was still in breach of the legal regulation in relation to safe care and treatment and staffing. We found that the service did not always provide safe care and treatment as we found medicines were not always managed well and the paediatric department was not secure or staffed well. Areas on the corridor used as temporary escalation spaces for patients were not always suitable due to the width of the corridor and promoting patient dignity in the emergency department.
The service was in breach of the legal regulations relating to safe care and treatment relating to medicines management in maternity care. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.
The service was previously in breach of the legal regulations and improvements were found at this
assessment.