Life is about to get easier for patients with long-term health issues in Maryport and Cockermouth.

The towns' GP surgeries are taking part in a national pilot scheme.

At the moment, people with two or more long-term conditions have to see separate health professionals to deal with them. 

Under the new scheme, they would have a single health co-ordinator.

Sarah Cousins, practice manager at Maryport Health Services, is currently in London talking to health bosses about the scheme. 

She said: "At the moment, a patient with long-term health problems she would have to tell her story several times to several people.

“Under the new system, the patient would contact the co-ordinator to discuss a problem – whether it is illness, or an inability to get to the surgery because of a lack of transport.

"The co-ordinator, who knows about the patient, would then get in touch with the appropriate people, including voluntary groups where appropriate, and would organise the appropriate response.

“It sounds like a lot of work but, in fact, we believe it would benefit both patient and practice."

She said because co-ordinators knew their patients, there could also be a lot more preventative care which would be cost-saving to the NHS and beneficial to patients.

Mrs Cousins said the surgeries were also exploring how to work with acute care ,making joint decisions on when a patient would be admitted or discharged and any follow-up on any needs required.

Maryport and Cockermouth, with four practices in the Eden area, were selected in December as one of the 15 sites in England to test new programmes.

Mrs Cousins added: "We were given no rulebook so we are working to develop these programmes and changes as we go along."

She said a primary objective was to make the best of a shrinking budget and to address the difficulty of being able to hire new doctors.