Crucial meeting looms over future of under-threat Hartlepool medical centre

Hartfields Medical Centre, at Bishop Cuthbert in Hartlepool, reopened to patients in January after previously being temporarily shut from mid-March 2020 due to Covid-19.

However, operators at the McKenzie Group Practice are still looking at potentially applying to health chiefs to permanently close it and to consolidate services at their other sites.

A second stage of public engagement on the site’s future, after an initial round in 2021, took place earlier this year over an eight-week period to July.

Hartlepool Borough Council’s audit and governance committee will on Thursday, September 29, be given an update from McKenzie Group Practice and Tees Valley Clinical Commissioning Group on the consultations’ outcome.

The process aimed to “look more closely at the impact of a possible permanent closure, whilst also exploring alternatives to the branch being fully open or closed”.

As well as giving users of the practice a chance to have their say online and at public meetings, the engagement included a presentation to the audit and governance committee.

At that meeting health chiefs stressed any potential closure of the medical centre “isn’t about saving money” and no decision had been made on its future.

It was previously confirmed an independent report would be compiled following the engagement exercise, which would determine what the practice puts forward next.

Any significant change would still have to go to a formal consultation period.

The meeting will be held at Hartlepool Civic Centre at 2pm and includes an opportunity for input from councillors, the town’s MP, Healthwatch and residents.