A retired consultant believes a new national plan to train more doctors strengthens calls to halt planned cuts to local services.

Health bosses say recruitment problems are the main reason they want to move consultant-led maternity to Carlisle, leaving women in west Cumbria facing a journey of at least 40 miles to reach a specialist.

But Mahesh Dhebar believes the reason the West Cumberland Hospital cannot permanently fill key posts is because of the question mark that has been hanging over the long term future of services.

Instead he has called on the Success Regime to guarantee the future of key services for the next three to five years.

Now, after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt unveiled plans to train more UK doctors, he believes his case is even stronger.

“It’s a good thing to be training more doctors but the time frame for that is about five years, which wouldn’t help the West Cumberland Hospital.

“I’m asking for three to five years where we continue to use locums while we train up new doctors,” explained Mr Dhebar.

He added that the University of Central Lancashire’s new health campus at Westlakes is also looking at new ways to train staff.

One of the ideas is to give nurses and physiotherapists who already have basic medical knowledge a chance to train up to become doctors.

They would balance part time practical work with part time studies over three or four years to step up their skills to doctor level.

Mr Dhebar, who worked at the Whitehaven hospital for most of his career, believes this will help find long term solutions.

The Success Regime has insisted that plans to move more services to Carlisle are not down to money, but staffing issues.

Both its chairman Sir Neil McKay and hospital chief executive Stephen Eames say that recruiting permanent paediatricians is a major issue, which impacts on the ability to run a 24-hour children’s ward.

They say it also has a knock-on effect of maternity, as it affects the trust’s ability to staff the Special Care Baby Unit – without which it wouldn’t be safe to run a consultant-led maternity service.

The Times & Star is calling for a rethink of the proposals through the Save Our Services campaign.

But Mr Dhebar believes the answer is simple – commit to the future of services like paediatrics and maternity, and give it enough time so that the area can benefit from the new doctors set to be trained.

During the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Mr Hunt pledged to train up to 1,500 more British doctors a year in a bid to tackle the growing recruitment crisis facing the NHS nationally.

He promised to reform the current 6,000-a-year cap on students at medical schools, allowing numbers to grow by as much as 25 per cent.

He also said he would fine doctors who moved abroad within four years of completing their training, making them pay back some of their medical school costs in a bid to keep them in the UK.

Mr Dhebar said he would welcome more doctors but there is no quick fix.

“I think this strengthens the call for more time,” he added.

John Holland, of Brampton hospital’s League of Friends group, believes the situation is similar in nursing – with community hospitals where beds are under threat struggling to fill key vacancies.