HOSPITAL campaigners have refused to endorse the Labour Group's vision for health and believe the hospital should remain where it is.

Keith Fisher, chairman of the Save our Hospital campaign, has been calling for the University Hospital of Hartlepool, in Holdforth Road, to remain where it is

Mr Fisher refused to enter into a debate about the new hospital site because he believes the current hospital could be saved if the Labour party had the will to do it.

Mr Fisher said: "I would never engage into a discussion about my preferred choice for the new hospital site because that cuts across our basic principle.

"All of what the Labour Group is saying about free parking and good access fades into insignificance because it should be helping us to save the hospital in the first place.

"It is the 60th birthday of the NHS this week and this is no time to be going backwards. Building a new hospital doesn't mean it will be better."

Health chiefs have also reacted to the Labour Group's vision for future health care.

Carole Langrick, deputy chief executive for North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are committed to gaining public funding for the new hospital because we think this is the most affordable route for building what will be a world class facility.

"We know people want to stay healthy and when they are ill they want services close to or in their own homes, designed around them and their needs, not the needs of the health service.

"The NHS has continued to flourish based on the same abiding principles on which it was originally set up. As custodians of this service we are totally committed to retaining those principles and as custodians, it is also our duty to plan and to ensure that health services are meeting the needs of local people, both now and in the future. "