Extra staff are being brought in to help Cumbria's hospital's cope with the problems caused by a cyber attack on the NHS.

North Cumbria University Hospital's Trust, which runs the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and the West Cumberland Hospital, has been asking for extra staff to come in due to "ongoing issues".

The computer virus, which has swept through the NHS, is still affecting hospitals and other health services in Cumbria.

Patients at both the Cumberland Infirmary and the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven are being asked to only attend accident and emergency departments unless it is absolutely necessary.

North Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) staff have been asked to switch off their computers while the problem is under investigation.

Cumbria's out of hours service CHOC is continuing to be affected and sent out this warning today: "Our service is taking longer than normal to respond due to the IT problems faced nationally, please use the CHoC service responsibly."

Services in Lancashire are also affected.

A spokesman for the Cumbria Partnership Trust said: "The computers at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundtion Trust are still unavailable and our staff are still operating services as usual safely in business continuity mode.

"The Trust identifed a virus on two of our non essential servers at lunchtime yesterday (Friday) and took immediate action to close down all other servers as a precaution.

"As a result of this early action we have been able to minimise the issue.

"No patient data has been lost and there has been no risk to the systems other than clinical downtime. A fix has been successfully applied and a process for getting back up and running will start tomorrow.

"We hope to be operating business as usual on Monday with minimal disruption. Staff should report to work as usual but wait until advised by their line manager to switch on their computer as this is being carefully co-ordinated.

"We would like to thank all of our staff who have worked round the clock tirelessly to ensure our patients are safe and to get computers up and running again."

A spokesman from NHS Digital national said on Friday: "A number of NHS organisations have reported to NHS Digital that they have been affected by a ransomware attack.

"The investigation is at an early stage but we believe the malware variant is Wanna Decryptor.

"This attack was not specifically targeted at the NHS and is affecting organisations from across a range of sectors.

"At this stage we do not have any evidence that patient data has been accessed.

"NHS Digital is working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Health and NHS England to support affected organisations and ensure patient safety is protected.

"Our focus is on supporting organisations to manage the incident swiftly and decisively, but we will continue to communicate with NHS colleagues and will share more information as it becomes available."

Three GP surgeries in Dumfries and Galloway have also been hit.

A Dumfries and Galloway healthboard spokesman said: "Three GP practices have been initially affected and we are taking precautionary measures to prevent any others being affected."

Wanna Decryptor is a piece of malicious software that encrypts files on a user's computer, blocking them from view and threatening to delete them unless a payment is made.

The virus is usually covertly installed on to computers by being hidden within innocent-looking emails containing links, which users are tricked into opening.