The fight over the future of West Cumbrian health services continued in a Whitehaven church.

Around 200 people turned up on Tuesday night to grill health bosses at the third, and last, public meeting organised by the Success Regime to be held in the town.

Maternity remained the most contentious, and emotive, issue. Angry debate followed questions on the definition of low-risk births and the transfer times of high-risk mums-to-be to Carlisle.

While the health panel, which included Stephen Eames, chief executive of the North Cumbria University Hospital Trust, accepted the passion and concern shown by the crowd, they stated over and over that "no decisions had been made''.

Held in the United Reform Church, the gathering was just the latest in a series of meetings to gauge public opinion on the Success Regime's proposals for West Cumbrian health care.

A decision on these proposals, including downgrading maternity and children's services, and the removal of emergency stroke care from the West Cumberland Hospital, looks set for spring 2017.

Mr Eames told the meeting that "significant engagement'' with the public was necessary due to the severity of the challenges the NHS faced.

"The uncertainty doesn't help,'' he said. "And there is a lot of uncertainty. It is the responsibility of people like myself to end long-standing issues.

"If it was easy, we would have solved them.''

Some of West Cumbrian health services were "really fragile'' and reliant on temporary staff. The Success Regime, Mr Eames added, was "trying to achieve safer, better and sustainable services''.

However, members of the audience, some of whom had attended other meetings, were frustrated with answers from the panel regarding the maternity issue.

Responses to questions about travel times along the A595, sufficient ambulances to transport mums-to-be and the pressure on midwives to make decisions on potentially high-risk births were met with anger and exasperation.

Rebecca Hanson, a local councillor, said: "The problem is, there is not a precedent for this length of journey.''

Midwives, she said, were being placed in a "hugely stressful and untenable situation''.

Norma Charters, of Whitehaven, who works at the West Cumberland Hospital, said staff had previously arrived "within three minutes'' to deliver an emergency section. "The people of West Cumbria deserve this service,'' she said.

Matt House, a consultant paramedic, told the meeting there were plans for a dedicated ambulance to transfer maternity patients to Carlisle.

An induction course was currently being held for paramedics, which would result in 15 new full-time paramedics for North Cumbria by April 2017.

There were also calls from the audience for the Success Regime to produce a risk assessment for travel along the A595 to Carlisle.

However, Mr Eames said an assessment would not just look at the issue of the road, but other risks to health such as a lack of consultants.