People had their say on maternity and paediatric services in Cumbria at the first in a series of drop-in events.

And they shared their views with health workers as to why finding a way to protect services is vital.

The event, at the Carnegie Theatre in Workington, was attended by NHS staff and representatives from Cumbria CVS and Healthwatch Cumbria.

Dr Stephen Singleton, of Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, said it was about building on decisions and finding out how best to make them work.

After widespread opposition – including that from the Save Our Services campaign – the CCG’s governing body agreed in March to give the consultant-led maternity service a 12-month reprieve to see if recruitment problems could be tackled.

It also pushed through the Success Regime’s preferred option for children’s services, which will see those with more serious conditions sent to Carlisle. There will still be overnight beds, but only for monitoring.

However, if the option was unsustainable, all overnight beds could be removed from Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital, with just a short-stay paediatric ward.

A dedicated in-patient unit would be created in Carlisle to serve the whole of Cumbria.

A committee pledged to work with the community to tackle recruitment, which was identified as a major issue, and also set up an independent review panel.

Sarah Stephens, 35, of Brigham, attended the drop-in with her 25-week-old daughter Jessica to share her experience of giving birth.

She was concerned about the risk of disabilities or deaths if consultant-led maternity services were not kept long term and there was not full paediatric support at Whitehaven.

“I can’t imagine what medical state I’d be in if I had to do that transfer to Carlisle,” she said.

“My husband would have had to follow, having spent 18 hours up with me in labour, being stressed, and when the road conditions were awful. I’d be very worried about that.

“I hope my experiences can be taken into account but I feel like the people making the decisions are making them in a very detached way.

“I understand they’re running an organisation but they need to stand in our shoes.”

Sarah said the event did not seem to have been well publicised and that it was not clear what its purpose was.

“It seems very difficult to find out about these events until they’re happening or have happened,” she said.

“We desperately need to keep consultant-led maternity at West Cumberland Hospital, with paediatric support.

“They say they’re listening but I don’t trust them as far as I could throw them. The key thing is taking it on board.”

Dr Singleton said the event was just the start of consultation. He stressed that the idea was for health organisations and the community to work together.