HEALTH secretary Alan Johnson has been asked to intervene to prevent further ward closures at Westmorland General Hospital.

MP Tim Farron is calling on Mr Johnson to halt proposed cutbacks at the hospital as part of the acute services review so an independent panel can decide whether they should go ahead.

The Westmorland and Lonsdale MP said wards were being "pushed to breaking point" since the controversial closure of Ward 11.

He has written to the Health Secretary asking him to refer the acute services review to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) "as a matter of urgency", and step in to halt the further closure of wards until the panel has reached its decision.

WGH has been put on red alert on a number of occasions in recent weeks because of a shortage of beds - a situation blamed by hospital bosses on an unpredicted increase in the number of patients, but by NHS SOS campaigners on the closure programme itself.

The hospital has also had to deal with a number of cases of diarrhoea and vomiting among patients, including cases of what was believed to be the noro-virus on Ward 7 and two confirmed cases this week of the potentially fatal hospital superbug C-Difficile on Ward 9.

Opponents of the ward closure programme claimed the noro-virus had been passed from acute medical patients to those recovering from surgery after the two categories of patient were put in the same ward because of the bed shortage.

It is feared the pressure to make cutbacks will continue to mount at WGH as bosses at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, which runs the Kendal hospital, have to find £40m in cost savings over the next five years, £10.8m of it during this year alone.

The IRP was set up in 2003 to provide advice to the Secretary of State for Health on contested changes in NHS provision, and Mr Farron believes that the body may provide a new way to prevent the proposed closures at WGH.

The MP said: "Anyone who has had to use the services at WGH since the recent closure of Ward 11 has seen the problems that it has caused - other wards pushed to breaking point, operations cancelled because of an overflow of patients onto surgical wards from medical wards, the spread of infection and a host of other problems.

"With this in mind, it is absolute madness that the trust is intent on pushing ahead with plans to close the heart unit and three more wards. If the local hospitals are struggling to cope with just one closure, how much impact will the closure of three more wards and the heart unit have? ...

"Hopefully, Mr Johnson will heed my advice and act immediately to help save Westmorland General Hospital."

WGH's medical director Peter Dyer said the trust was not obliged to consult the IRP over its acute services review.