One day the cardiac team will not be able to get in as quick as it would like - peoples' lives would be compromised

Dr Paul Dyson

The committee, chaired by MP David Hinchcliffe met with staff and management at the hospital on Tuesday.

It is the first in the country to be built under the private finance initiative (PFI).

PFI means that a private developer builds the hospital and leases it back to the health service.

Dr Dyson believes that leads to hospitals being built "on the cheap".

He said: "In order to squeeze as many beds into as small a space as possible, management decided to put five beds in a four-bed ward.

Lives 'compromised'

"When we first saw this we were astonished how cramped it was.

"When we looked into whether it was feasible to get resuscitation equipment in, we found there were difficulties.

The hospital is the first to be built under PFI

"If there was a cardiac arrest in visiting time we'd have to ask all the visitors to leave, because there's not enough space.

"One day the cardiac team will not be able to get in as quick as it would like - peoples' lives would be compromised.

"We've raised this with management and they say, 'This is the hospital we can afford - we can't afford biger wards."

Concern about the placing of a fifth bed in a four-bed bay was also raised by the Commission for Health Improvement in its recent inspection of wards at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust.

The report concluded that the practice was "unsafe" and meant that "patients are put in danger".

'Successful' exercises

It said because it was difficult for staff to bring resuscitation equipment to the bedside, the conditions "compromise patient safety, privacy and dignity".

It added: "This practice must stop immediately".

But managers at the Carlisle Infirmary said it was wrong to claim an extra bed has been squeezed in.

Medical director William Reid said: "I deny that the beds were put in in that way - they were designed for five patients.

"It's not a matter of squeezing five beds into a space for four beds.

"When we designed the five-bed bays we looked at patient flows and treatments for all sorts of specialties.

"We ran exercises to see if we could resusitate patients in that area and those were successful."

Managament insist that in all those exercises staff could get resusitation equipment into the wards.

Meanwhile, the health select committee will return to the House of Commons to consider what effect involving the private sector in the hospital has had.