A highly respected doctor who worked at West Cumberland Hospital for nearly 20 years has spoken out over the Success Regime’s controversial plans for maternity.

John Eldred believes 24/7 consultant-led maternity care should remain at the hospital – stating transport to Carlisle is inadequate to transfer pregnant mothers.

He said during the last 10 years of his time at the WCH he was involved in 10 reviews of obstetric care.

He said: “I felt central to all of these processes was a simple choice, if difficult decision, between having either one or two obstetric units in north Cumbria.

“These reviews were flawed because they tried to force local clinicians to make the decision.

"The Carlisle consultants were felt to be 'building empires', the Whitehaven consultants 'fighting for their jobs', all aided by transient managers.”

Mr Eldred said he did not support the Success Regime plans.

“The impact of this proposed withdrawal of care is difficult to calculate because this experiment has not been performed on such a population before.”

Mr Eldred said the Royal College of Gynacology "demands delivery within 30 or 75 minutes, depending on the degree of distress”.

He disagrees with new clinical director, Dr Ajith Wijesiriwardana, who said the distance between Whitehaven and Carlisle hospitals was “not actually that far”.

Mr Eldred said previous reviews stated the number of ‘high-risk’ babies West Cumbrian babies would be 750.

“Having been labelled as high risk, now management and monitoring will be unavailable for at least one to two hours of labour as they travel to Carlisle.

NICE stated 30 minutes is the benchmark for access to obstetric care. Currently, five per cent of West Cumberland patients deliver within one hour and 15 per cent within two, so 125 high-risk women per year would be at risk of delivery away from obstetric care.

"I deeply regret leaving West Cumberland Hospital but I was not willing to continue to work for an organisation that could not make up its mind if it wanted me to do my job or not."