MORECAMBE Bay Trust (UHMBT) gave a grant to a healthcare provider to free up beds in Furness General Hospital. 

UHMBT, along with other trusts across the UK, has difficulty moving patients who could be provided with homecare but have nowhere to go with this service provided so stay indefinitely in hospital. 

This is often referred to in the media as 'bed blocking.' 

MSH Healthcare was given a grant from UHMBT to relieve 20 beds from Furness General over a seven-week period. 

The deal was facilitated by the local MP Simon Fell and was done during a Covid-19 spike and the winter flu period. 

READ MORE: Morecambe Bay hospitals 'remain under extreme pressure'

The grant paid for 23 individuals to return home and receive care in the community.

MSH Healthcare said that this meant those in need of hospital beds could receive the treatment or operations they had been waiting for. 

Katie Hughes, HR manager for MSH Healthcare said: "We have used part of this grant to feed our local recruitment campaigns and because of this, we have taken on a total of 23 individuals across the Furness area since the start of February with many more applying every day. 

"On behalf of the whole team here at MSH Healthcare, I’d like to say a huge thank you to Simon for his help with this. Together, we’ve been able to create more local jobs, and free up hospital beds at Furness General.

“We very much look forward to working with Simon again in the future.”

Mr Fell said: "I was invited to visit MSH Healthcare in November. It was a fascinating visit, and MSH has a great business model. They have the skilled, caring, and compassionate workforce standing by to help our local NHS by easing winter pressures and so-called ‘bed blocking’.

“I was only too happy to be able to help by introducing MSH to our local trust and I was delighted to see how much of an impact us all working has had on our local community.”