Reacting to the news that fertility services will soon end at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, Alex Cunningham, Labour MP for Stockton North, said:
“It is extremely sad to see another service provided by the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust is to be lost to residents north of the River Tees – this time because they can’t recruit the expert staff needed.
“There have been warnings time and again that the hospital can often struggle to recruit the expert medical staff they require to provide the services needed by people in our area.
“Throughout the planning for the new hospital, first axed by the Tory-led government in 2010 only to be reconsidered over the next five years before being ditched altogether last year, it was made clear that a new hospital would provide the 21st century environment which would attract the best of clinical staff.
“Instead, the Government decided a meagre £25 million to update some facilities would suffice. Clearly it won’t, and the Trust can’t recruit the staff they need.
“I know people are fond of their local hospital but cannot for the life of me understand why patients in the South can access the best of facilities in new hospitals whilst those in the North just have to make do.”
