Health bosses are coming under increased pressure to scrap plans to send more seriously ill patients, including mums in labour, to Carlisle after it emerged police are already having to step in to help with transfers.

Peter McCall, Police and Crime Commissioner, said ambulance crews are so stretched that police are being used on an "almost daily basis to assist urgent cases from West Cumbria to Carlisle".

He has responded to the Success Regime consultation, raising concerns about controversial proposals to downgrade maternity and other services at the West Cumberland Hospital, resulting in even more urgent transfers along the A595 to Carlisle.

Mr McCall said the ambulance service are already struggling, and police couldn't cope with any more requests for help. The Success Regime claims "robust" plans would be put in place to ensure transfers were safe, but Mr McCall is concerned.

"If they have a robust plan, it needs to be tested before they make these decisions, not after. We are talking about people's lives. They have a duty to get that right," he said.

Mr McCall is not the first to express serious concerns. Doctors, midwives and ambulance staff are also among those to flag up the risks for patients, particularly to mothers and unborn babies, while 10,000 people backed The Whitehaven News's Save Our Services campaign.

But his comments add further weight to widespread calls to scrap the Success Regime proposals.

Annette Robson, of the We Need West Cumberland Hospital campaign group, said: "We appreciate Peter McCall’s contribution in the fight for our services. It is clear that the risk to patients is increased during transfers when an ambulance is not available and the police can only provide basic first aid. It also raises questions about the statistics the Success Regime have used.

"On the basis of this report alone, it is obvious that moving services from West Cumberland Hospital to Carlisle should not be an option."

Mike Oliver, Unison representative at the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), agreed. "He makes a valid point regarding unacceptable risk. It's true that on occasions where we are going to be delayed the police have gone to a call," he said.

"Unison has always maintained that transfer times in the consultation have been underestimated. The plans do not deliver a clinically safe transfer package."

Mr McCall said he was not officially consulted by the Success Regime, though believes he should have been, yet felt compelled to respond. "If I didn't then I would be failing in my duty," he added.