Health chiefs to give update on maternity services at University Hospital of Hartlepool

It comes after last month hospital bosses said the midwife-led centre within the University Hospital of Hartlepool was not getting enough births a year to make it worthwhile to staff.

However last week Hartlepool Borough Council leader Coun Shane Moore said he received a ‘positive update’ on maternity provision following a meeting with North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust bosses.

He said he had been assured the hospital trust is on course to see a fully operational maternity hub with a full complement of midwives after a recruitment drive by the autumn.

He added: “In particular, we are looking forward to working with the trust to increase the number of women who give birth at the University Hospital of Hartlepool.”

The council’s Audit and Governance Committee will receive a further update from North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust on the development of maternity services.

Earlier this year the committee completed its investigation ‘The Provision of High Quality Maternity Services and Elective Surgery at the University Hospital of Hartlepool’.

The committee then set out a series of recommendations, including plans for a maternity hub, which were compiled into an action plan to be carried out.

Work has been ongoing on the implementation of the action plan and an update on progress is to be presented by representatives from the North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust at next week’s meeting.

Councillors on the Audit and Governance Committee had said last month they wanted ‘urgent’ talks with the trust to discuss the way forward following reports mothers could no longer have their babies at Hartlepool hospital.

The hospital trust said last month that maternity services at the hospital were still open providing ante and post-natal care and women could give birth at home.

But it said for a delivery service to remain sustainable, it must have more than 250-300 births a year, while in recent years the number in Hartlepool had fallen to below 25.

The meeting will take place on August 22, at the Civic Centre from 10am.