A pensioner has joined the fight to save beds at Maryport’s cottage hospital after witnessing bed-blocking in Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary.

Valerie Thomas broke her leg when she fell in her shower at her Crosby Villa home earlier this year.

She spent nearly two weeks in the Carlisle hospital.

She said she spent two needless days in hospital as although she did not require any further nursing, there was no transport to take her home so she was forced to stay longer.

Mrs Thomas, of Lonsdale Terrace, said: “I waited 60 hours from breaking my leg until having an operation.

“They then kept me in for 10 days. I could have gone home on the Saturday rather than the Monday, but because the break was above my knee, I couldn’t fit in a normal car and the hospital couldn’t find any transport for me.

“While I was in there, there were two people who were transferred from Carlisle to Whitehaven to relieve the beds.

“They should have been taken to one of the small, local hospitals to be cared for.”

She is now planning to write to the Care Quality Commission about her experience.

The North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, said tackling bed-blocking was a priority. The trust is also pushing its safer standards review which includes all patients having a senior review before midday by a clinician.

A spokeswoman for the North West Ambulance Service said it has a contract with the hospital trust between 8am and 6pm on Mondays to Fridays. Anything that falls outside of these hours is the responsibility of the hospitals.