HOSPITAL bosses have described increasing waits at Barrow's accident and emergency as a 'cause for concern'.

The percentage of patients not seen and cared for within four hours has increased in recent months amid pressures at Furness General Hospital.

The chief executive of the Morecambe Bay NHS trust previously warned that pressures were placing increasing strain on emergency care.

And figures released by the trust to its board of directors said the percentage of people visiting FGH and being discharged, transferred or admitted under four hours had gone down.

The NHS aims to meet the four-hour target for 76 per cent of patients.

The most recent figures presented to the trust board said performance at FGH had worsened, with 69.3 per cent of patients seen within the time frame, down from 73.6 in previous month.

More than 3,500 visits to A&E were recorded at that time.

The A&E performance has been described as a 'cause for concern'.

 A report presented to the board described how 'sustained pressures reported last month have manifested in a further deterioration across all the urgent and emergency care metrics'.

It added: "Performance has moved into special cause concern due to a run of performance below the mean in month; including Morecambe UTC performance is under the 76% target at 71.9%.

"The underperformance continues to be predominantly driven by poor performance at Royal Lancaster Infirmary which was at 55.6% for February, however Furness General Hospital performance has also worsened in month and was at 69.3% versus 73.6% in the previous month."

FGH has also moved into a 'special cause concern' in relation to patients waiting more than 12 hours at A&E.

The most recent data for the hospital showed 7.9 per cent of patients had had to wait for 12 hours, lagging far behind the target of 2 per cent.

The trust said it would implement several changes to improve A&E, including having emergency department teams hold twice-daily huddles with medical and surgical colleagues.

Chief executive Aaron Cummins previously said pressures were affecting patients and staff and accident and emergency departments at Barrow and Lancaster were facing a 'challenging' time.