New details about crunch meeting over plans to axe Hartlepool medical centre

A meeting of Hartlepool Borough Council’s audit and governance committee will be taking place on Friday, August 27, at 10am to discuss plans to close Hartfields Medical Practice, based at Hartfields Extra Care Village, at Bishop Cuthbert.

The meeting will feature The McKenzie Group, which runs the practice, putting forward details of its closure proposal engagement so far.

Feedback will also be tabled from an ongoing Healthwatch public consultation.

Verbal input will be offered by Hartlepool’s MP, councillors, residents and interested groups and bodies to help form the council’s response.

A presentation will also be given by Tees Valley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) about how final decision making process will be carried out.

Hartfields Medical Practice has almost 2,200 registered patients and has been temporarily closed since the 2020 coronavirus outbreak.

But The McKenzie Group is looking to apply to NHS Tees Valley CCG to shut the practice permanently.

The group is carrying out patient and stakeholder engagement until Sunday, August 29, to gather people’s views and experiences during the temporary closure and to ensure they understand what is planned.

It intends to bring services together at its other sites at Wynyard Road Medical Centre, McKenzie House, Throston Medical Centre and Victoria Medical Centre.

The Bishop Cuthbert, Hartfields and Clavering Residents Association has started an online petition to fight the closure which has so far attracted more than 400 signatures.

August 13 was the deadline to reserve places to attend the meeting.