A leading politician has called for a hospitals trust to stop action against a long-serving midwife who spoke of her concerns about maternity reforms.

Bernadette Bowness, 64, is facing disciplinary for comments made in a television interview following the decision by NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to only retain consultant-led maternity at the West Cumberland Hospital for a year.

She spoke of her concerns at the uncertainty that continues to hang over the service and how that will impact on recruitment.

During a health summit held by Allerdale council at Energus, Lillyhall, yesterday, the council's deputy leader, Mark Fryer, told health bosses: "Following the publication of the report a midwife stepped up and she was pretty fair, reasonable, professional. I'm telling you to leave her alone. She's one of us, she's part of our community.


"She's standing up for our community being proactive on some points and critical on some other stuff that you've put forward.

"I think that what you're doing on that particular point is absolutely outrageous.

"You should leave her alone and let her get on with her great work of delivering babies in our community.

"She's acting on behalf of our community."

The audience applauded Mr Fryer's comments.

Panelist Anna Stabler, deputy director of nursing and midwifery at North Cumbria University Hospital Trust, said she could not comment on the case as it was an internal trust matter.

John Howarth, deputy chief executive and director of service improvement at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: "There have been GPs and specialists with different opinions and there's been a lot of tension developed. We've got to find a way out of this."

He added that Whitehaven's West Cumberland Hospital was a vibrant hospital when he joined its team 33 years ago.

He said: "We've got some rebuilding to do as a system and get all our team speaking well of where they work if we want to recruit."

During the meeting, members of the audience told panelists people and professionals had lost their trust in health bosses and felt their opinions were not listened to.

Peter Rooney, chief operating officer at Cumbria CCG, said: "We really take away the trust message, we know there's a lot to do to regain trust, not just from the public but from clinicians, who feel their voice wasn't heard.

"We do want to hear a diversity of views."