Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary is so full that some patients - including children and pregnant women - are being sent to Whitehaven, it has been claimed.

And residents in the city are being warned their hospital will be put under even more pressure if controversial plans to cut services - including maternity and paediatrics - in west Cumbria go ahead.

Campaigners are urging the Carlisle public to turn out to a public meeting in the city today to take health chiefs to task.

The We Need West Cumberland Hospital protest group said it was contacted twice over the weekend with stories of those affected by the shortage of beds at the Cumberland Infirmary.

One was a pregnant woman who was sent from Carlisle to Whitehaven to be induced because there was no space.

Another was from a woman whose child was being cared for in Whitehaven children's ward. She said the Carlisle children's ward was so full that youngsters were having to be sent there.

They have now written to hospital bosses to flag up the situation.

Meanwhile the Success Regime is proposing to centralise more services in Carlisle, including consultant-led maternity and more serious paediatric cases - prompting the Times & Star Save Our Services campaign.

Under the proposals, more emergency cases, including all stroke patients, would also be treated at the Cumberland Infirmary.

Yet bosses also want to reduce bed numbers at both the Carlisle and Whitehaven hospitals within four years.

Stephen Eames, chief executive of North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, has insisted that the infirmary could cope.

However he also said more planned surgery would take place in the west and people from Carlisle may have to travel the other way.

Although it wouldn't comment on individual cases, the trust said that the children's ward in Carlisle was not closed over the weekend.

However when services are busy patients can be seen at another hospital.

Christina Cuncarr, associate director of midwifery, said: “We operate as a single service across both of our hospitals sites as per our current model of care with safety being our number one priority.

"Clinical decisions are made based on individual needs in order to ensure the most appropriate levels of care are provided.

"This is normal clinical practice and it is has no bearing on any future configuration of maternity services."

Meanwhile it has been widely reported that Prime Minister Theresa May has said there will be no extra money for the NHS, despite promises made during the Brexit referendum by Leave campaigners.

The Success Regime was sent into north and West Cumbria by the Government to sort out deep-rooted problems in the local NHS, including spiralling multi-million pound debts. It said tough decisions need to be made if the area is to live within its means.

But it was argued last week at the Cumbria Health Scrutiny Committee meeting that the problems being experienced are the result of many years of underfunding, not overspending.

North Cumbrian mum Hazel Graham, 35, of Brampton, is among those backing our Save Our Services campaign.

She agrees that under-investment - led by those who do not understand Cumbria's unique circumstances - is the problem.

"Nothing in the proposals deals with this as the root cause, and I absolutely oppose the closure of any facilities," she said.

"I think there is a major issue with the London-centric political class imposing cuts on rural communities which they don't really understand or have little knowledge off.

"The Success Regime is just the latest blunt instrument for beating exhausted NHS workers about the head in an attempt to get more work out of them in the same number of hours, for the same pay, and in the same demoralising conditions. The government are displaying a fanatical determination not to increase resources, and to continue to blame NHS workers for the shortcomings of services.

  • A public meeting is due to be held today at Whitehaven's United Reformed Church from 1pm until 3pm and Maryport - where the town's community hospital beds are set to close. This will be held at St Mary's Church between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.

A full schedule of public meetings can be found on the Success Regime website - www.wnecumbria.nhs.uk - where people can also use the online form to give their views on the options.

The Times & Star has launched a Save Our Services campaign opposing the Success Regime's plans for healthcare. Sign our petition here or download a paper copy here to share in your community.