A group representing all consultants and permanent doctors at north Cumbria's hospitals has slated efforts to overhaul maternity services, labelling the plans "unsafe".

The Medical Staff Committee (MSC), which represents those working in both Carlisle and Whitehaven, said the Success Regime's preferred option - to remove consultants and leave only a midwife-led unit at the West Cumberland Hospital - would result in "perilous transfers" of mothers and babies at their most vulnerable time.

It claims it would also have a long-lasting psychological impact on an entire community and calls for "wholescale rejection" of the plan.

The MSC also criticised the consultation process, saying engagement with frontline medics was minimal, positive ideas ignored and those putting them forward left "feeling insulted and some publicly humiliated".

The MSC made these recommendations as part of the Healthcare for the Future public consultation, which ended just before Christmas.

Many thousands of people - including 10,000 Times & Star readers -opposed the plans, which also included downgrading paediatrics at Whitehaven and closing community hospital beds.

Frontline health staff, including midwives, have also condemned the proposals - which would see women who suffer complications in labour transferred 40 miles by ambulance to Carlisle.

The MSC concluded: "Consensus view was the preferred option was the most unsafe option, now and in the future.

"This is irrespective of daytime consultant presence or support as it mandates several perilous transfers, possibly separately, of mothers and newborns at their physically most vulnerable moment of their entire lives. There are no mitigations in this option to combat (or reduce) the risks of potential emotional trauma and long-lasting psychological marginalisation of a whole community in west Cumbria."

They add that not a single local consultant is involved in the local "Better Births" midwifery review, and said discussions have centred around "bricks and mortar" rather than what is best for patients.

The MSC wants the existing options scrapped and has set out what it believes is a better option, allowing consultant-led maternity to continue in Carlisle and Whitehaven using a flexible rota, with consultants and senior doctors working across both sites as part of a single unit.

This move would also safeguard the future of children's services.

"This concept has the full support of the clinicians," adds the MSC.