Hospital bosses can be left in no doubt about the strength of feeling in West Cumbria.

The first of the Success Regime meetings have been held and hundreds of people have attended.

Their message was clear – hands off our hospital services.

West Cumbria needs and deserves a first-rate health service and we demand nothing less.

Over the past several months, people have lived in fear that the West Cumberland Hospital was being asset stripped and that we would all be forced to call the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle our “local” hospital.

Story after story has come out about people’s experiences.

That fear has grown into terror that a member of our family, in a life-threatening emergency, may have to endure up to an hour in an ambulance until they could be treated.

But these meetings should give us hope that it is time for a new chapter for our hospitals.

Health chiefs admitted they had not given people enough information and this is now a time for “reflection and listening’’.

This is not the time for a major celebration.

We may have won a battle to be heard but we are yet to see the end of a healthcare war.

We’re not out of the woods yet.

There is still a gaping sore across the NHS that needs to be healed.

There are still question marks over the future of maternity care and other hospital services.

Recruitment remains a big issue.

We urge the Success Regime bosses to look for long-term solutions and not just put a plaster over the wound.