A GP and governor of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust has joined calls for the group’s ‘failed’ management to resign.

He slammed ‘blinkered’ bosses whom he said had ‘stripped services to the bare minimum’ and were ‘gambling with patients lives’.

David Earnshaw, of Ambleside, said since he became a South Lakeland and Eden governor 12 months ago he had witnessed managers silencing staff concerns and ignoring expert advice in order to push through ‘dangerous changes’.

The experienced out-of-hours doctor, based at Westmorland General Hospital, in Kendal, said the trust generated a culture of ‘shut up and get on with it’.

He added: “This is not a joined-up organisation. When it gets down to the nitty gritty, managers don’t want to hear criticism so standards have dropped.

“I became a governor to help ensure patients get the best services possible. Instead I have been told to keep quiet.”

Mr Earnshaw said he was horrified when, in 2008, the hospital trust moved acute services from Kendal’s Westmorland General Hospital.

He said the move had seen Lancaster Royal Infirmary struggling ‘beyond its limits’ with queues of patients often waiting more than two hours for accident and emergency treatment.

He said: “Myself and many others fought vigorously to oppose plans. We felt the other hospitals wouldn’t cope with extra patients.

“This has been proved time and time again with stressed staff, bed shortages and people frequently turned away from Lancaster because it is full.”

Mr Earnshaw, 69, echoed concerns of an anonymous consultant, who spoke out about the trust in The Westmorland Gazette last week.

He said: “Many people feel the same but can’t speak out because they fear they will lose their jobs.

"I’ve been told by management not to discuss staff concerns about pressure and stretching of the system. They don’t want staff feelings to be publicised.

“This is part of a bad management style, where directors feel they know better than anyone.

“It is about time they acknowledged they have seriously failed.

“Tony Halsall says you get ‘peaks and troughs’, with system stress going up and down.

"But services are only organised to cope with an average strain - not with busy times and fluctuations in patient numbers.

“Services, such at the heart unit, need to be brought back to Kendal now.

"Capacity needs to be increased and services better managed before vulnerable people’s lives are lost.

“Some patients are stuck waiting for treatment and others stuck in ambulances waiting outside the hospital doors.

"Either way this is a scandal and it is gambling with patients’ lives.”