Health bosses are struggling to recruit more than a quarter of the consultants needed by north Cumbria’s hospitals.

As the trust which manages the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven and Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary admits to a £64 million overspend, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that as of September, hospital chiefs had gaps for more than one in four of all the full-time consultants required.

Although some progress has been made, they admit recruitment is still a major issue locally, and one of the reasons for the massive overspend, which is £20m more than initially feared.

The new chief executive of the North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, Stephen Eames, said key to tacking the overspend was appointing permanent staff, to reduce the locum bill, which costs millions of pounds a year.

He said: "There are very high agency and bank costs, particularly medical staffing so the more we can recruit to these posts, the better it will be."

Solving the staffing crisis was also key to getting the hospitals out of special measures, he said. 

However, he said he did not know if the planned takeover of the Cumbrian trust by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust would go ahead. 

But he added there would be an ongoing relationship with it. 

Mr Eames said a clinical strategy would be unveiled at the end of March and would form the basis of a 12-week consultation about the future of services at the West Cumberland Hospital.