A new option for maternity services in West Cumbria, which would see all births going to Carlisle during the night, has been put forward by health bosses.

Campaigners have been fighting to save 24-hour consultant-led services at the West Cumberland Hospital, which could be replaced by a midwife-led unit or even an antenatal-only service.

Now, in a bid to appease residents, the Government’s Success Regime – which is heading a major review of services across north and West Cumbria – has come up with another alternative.

This would be a midwife-led unit, with consultants available on site for assessments but only during the day. At nights all births would go to Carlisle.

This option was put forward at a stakeholder engagement meeting in Workington yesterday, where Regime chairman Sir Neil McKay gave an update ahead of a public consultation in September.

Following feedback, he said they were adding new options for children’s and maternity services.

The future of community hospitals was also discussed.

Stephen Singleton, medical director of the programme, said the new option aimed at being a mix of options one and two, but stressed it would not be a 24-hour service.

He added: “We’ve tried to make it a better option, more complete. People always focus on things they’re losing rather than those that remain. The one thing that will change with this option is if you have a birth in the middle of the night that would happen in Carlisle.”

Dr Singleton said maternity services were closely linked with children services. He added there was a big issue with recruitment in both areas at Whitehaven, and a national shortage of paediatricians, hence the need for a rethink. They are also looking to integrate children services in the community, with more local assessments, then seeing the child in Whitehaven, Carlisle or Newcastle depending on how sick they are.

But Sue Stevenson, of Healthwatch Cumbria, which lead an independent engagement exercise, stressed there were strong local calls to keep services at Whitehaven hospital.

“People want it to be everything it can be, they want it to deliver everything it was built for – A&E, maternity and children services. This is a community that feels that it has an equal right to have access to these services,” she said.

Another point of the discussion was the role of community hospitals.

It was revealed yesterday that the preferred option would see Maryport, Wigton and Alston hospitals lose all their beds, consolidating a total of 104 beds across the other hospitals.

Sir Neil said the reasoning was not financial, but to improve care by keeping more people at home with support from strengthened community teams. He said that they are no longer looking to close all community beds, but create units that are easier to staff.

He said: “The amount saved with the changes would be very small. The plan is for teams of professionals to operate in the community. Being in hospital for longer than you need to be is not good for you.

“Three months ago we were told that with integrated care communities it would be possible to run community hospitals without any beds at all. It might be possible one day but it’s not something that we are working on.”

But Maurice Tate, treasurer of Maryport League Of Friends, told Sir Neil: “Where do the words patient care come into all this search that we’re doing? Nobody has said those words.” He also said that if Maryport hospital closed, visitors would face journeys of up to four hours on public transport in the evening for a 20 minute visit.

Mr Tate also asked who would fund the proposed scheme for care in the community, but received no answer.

After the meeting, he said: “Those people think that everybody should be looked after in their own homes, but they wouldn’t received the 24 hour care that they need.”

A progress report is due to be published by the Success Regime next week, with formal plans published in September.