Nearly four years after being placed in special measures, the West Cumberland Hospital looks set for a brighter future, according to its health boss.

In a statement, Stephen Eames, chief executive of North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust which runs the hospital, said while he was “under no illusions’’ about the work the trust still needs to do, he praised the staff saying “we have a lot to celebrate’’.

He wholeheartedly welcome the CQC’s report stating it was a “momentous day for our staff who have been working relentlessly hard for four years to reach this achievement and I am immensely proud of our teams.

“I also hope this milestone assures our local communities across West, North and East Cumbria that their hospitals are providing quality services. Of the possible 78 ratings our services received, we now have 57 ‘goods’ which is the most we have ever had.

“The majority of our services are also ‘good’ overall and I must commend urgent and emergency services and end-of-life care for the marked improvements they have demonstrated.

“In addition, I would like to congratulate the services who have maintained their ‘good’ rating and a special mention to critical care who have achieved ‘good’ in every domain across both hospitals,’’ Mr Eames said.

“Our infection prevention and control team also must be recognised for their hard work and commitment as recognised by the inspection team. While we have a lot to celebrate, I am also under no illusions that we still have work to do.

“Our services that ‘require improvement’ in medical care, surgery and maternity and gynaecology are all working equally as hard as the rest of our teams but are experiencing challenges.

“As the CQC has recognised, we have experienced some successes in medical recruitment over the past year but we still have a way to go and we remain determined to increase our recruitment again this year, particularly in children’s services which we will be working on in partnership with our local community. Being in special measures has not been an easy label to have and it has affected our staff morale.

“Following recent decisions taken by NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group regarding the future development of a number of our services and the news from the CQC today, the future has never looked brighter for our trust.’’