Save Hartlepool Hospital group warns fertility cuts will '˜have a massive effect locally'

The Save Hartlepool Hospital group says the move to no longer provide licensed fertility treatment, including IVF, from the end of March has wider implications for patients.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust says it reluctantly made the decision after not being able to recruit embryologists.

Stan Cronin, chairman of the Town of Hartlepool Challenge group, which runs Save Hartlepool Hospital, said: “We at Town of Hartlepool Challenge deplore this action and we call on our councillors, the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), MP, Secretary of State for Health (Jeremy Hunt) and NHS England to intervene on this matter.

“We believe more could have been done to retain this and many others services which have been removed from Hartlepool hospital.

“We feel that this decision is rash and poorly devised.”

The campaign group has revealed several other licensed procedures apart from IVF that will be affected.

Those confirmed by the trust are: Intra uterine insemination, sperm and embryo freezing, ICSI where a single sperm is directly injected into an egg and the fertilised egg transferred to the womb, and sperm donation.

Mr Cronin added: “On the surface, it looks like the hospital is losing a small and under-used service but this is not the case, the impact of losing this whole department will have a massive effect locally on both NHS and private patients.

“We have spoken to a number of people who have accessed this service and are on the waiting lists and many are concerned that such a beloved and much needed service is being removed.”

The hospital trust refuted several other fertility procedures the group claimed were to be affected.

The campaign group is also calling on the council, CCG and NHS England to investigate a lack of public consultation on the fertility changes and overall planning by trust managers.

Mr Cronin added: “We vehemently and forcefully oppose any reduction of services at Hartlepool Hospital as well as North Tees Hospital, this current decision is one that compounds and intensifies the ever-increasing feeling of isolation and discontent that our members and residents of Hartlepool and South Durham feel daily.”

The group expressed its concerns about the removal of services to Professor David Colin-Thomè at a public event on urgent and emergency care in Hartlepool on Thursday night.

The campaign is urging people to attend a special meeting to which trust leaders have been called to explain the decision. It is at Hartlepool Civic Centre on Friday, February 5, at 2.30pm.

Mr Cronin said: “It is important for as many people as possible to attend, as this will show the public’s discontent at the systematic closure of services at Hartlepool hospital.”

With regards to recruitment a hospital trust spokesman said: “We have made every effort for some time to recruit.”

Philip Broughton, Ukip candidate for Hartlepool, said Hartlepool hospital was being closed by stealth.

“The axing of fertility services at the Hartlepool hospital is just the latest example of vital services being cut and taken away from people,” he said.