Health bosses have failed to provide a risk assessment about the dangers faced by women travelling 40 miles while in labour, it has been claimed.

The West Cumbrians’ Voice for Healthcare is the latest to speak out against the Success Regime’s plans to remove consultant-led maternity from Whitehaven.

If this happens, only a midwife-led unit will remain – meaning any women with higher risk pregnancies will automatically be delivered in Carlisle.

For those giving birth in Whitehaven, they face the prospect of an emergency ambulance transfer along the A595 if anything goes wrong.

West Cumbrian midwives and obstetricians are among those to speak out, saying the time and distances involved pose too much of a risk for mums and babies. However the Success Regime insists contingency plans, including a dedicated ambulance, will be put in place.

But the West Cumbrians’ Voice group has now expressed its concerns at the lack of detailed risk assessment. At a recent meeting of the Cumbria Health Scrutiny Committee they labelled those drawing up the plans as “irresponsible” for failing to provide one.

The Success Regime says that it will draw up detailed plans once the preferred option has been decided, after the ongoing public consultation.

Now the Voice group has published its own assessment of the maternity options. It highlights the fact that not one of the options put forward for public consultation would see the current fully-functioning consultant-led unit remain. Even if consultants remain, the Regime is still proposing high risk pregnancies be dealt with at Carlisle. In a statement the group said: “None of the options take into account the main issue that low risk ‘normal’ deliveries can turn suddenly into high risk deliveries needing emergency care.”

It adds: “All options would reduce the choice that women could make on where to have their babies. Without specialist care at Whitehaven many would take a path of caution and choose to go to Carlisle, further damaging the sustainability of Whitehaven maternity services.

“All options increase the risk of injury, or even death, to mother and/or baby if an emergency arises, whether that is in hospital or in the ambulance on the way to Carlisle.

“All options will increase physical, financial and emotional hardship for an area which is already known to contain some of the most disadvantaged communities in the county.”

The group said the option of no change – the option preferred by the majority of west Cumbrians and local health professionals – should have been included.

Bosses say that recruitment problems have made the status quo unviable, as a lack of permanent consultants makes the existing service vulnerable.

But the Voice group is backing a different option – one already proposed by retired west Cumbrian consultant Mahesh Dhebar and backed by many locals.

This is to retain the current services for two to five years to allow ongoing developments – including the growth of a new health training campus in west Cumbria, linked to the University of Central Lancashire – to bed in and bring new staff through.

They also argue that other developments, such as the Moorside nuclear power station and potential new mining schemes, could also increase demand for health services.