Future of Hartlepool Hospital's fertility services to be revealed today
A six-week consultation has been underway, after bosses said they want to close the unit due to problems recruiting staff.
Parents-to-be in Teesside will find out if they can still have fertility treatment at Hartlepool hospital today.
The Assisted Reproduction Unit there has been under threat of closure since January, after bosses at North Tees and Hartlepool Hospital Trust said there were staffing problems.
They claimed they'd struggled to recruit embyrologists and keeping the unit open was 'unsafe'.
Hartlepool Council took legal action against the decision and earlier this year a High Court ruled that a six-week consultation must take place.
£60,000 of legal fees were accrued in securing the High Court decision.
North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has since indicated it has no desire to run the service although it is not opposed to someone else delivering it from the Holdforth Road hospital site in Hartlepool.
In a meeting at Hartlepool Council today, the findings of the six-week consultation will be revealed.
Only last week, Councillor Martin-Wells criticised North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust for the way they have handled the fertility services issue.
He said: “The Hospital Trust has finally admitted that it has no desire to continue running the service. All along, senior executives have given the excuse that they cannot recruit sufficient embryologists but everyone knows now that this is not the case.
“If the Trust had come clean six months ago it would have prevented the need for High Court action and prevented the Hospital Trust and Council wasting around £60,000 in legal costs - time and money that could have been spent on finding another provider to deliver this vital service.”
Trade unions and the Royal College of Nursing are expected to attend today's meeting.
Darlington mam Stacey Donnelly had her twins after having treatment at Hartlepool Hospital.
She said: "The care we got from Hartlepool, you could not fault it, it was second-to-none.
"The staff were all fantastic and nothing was too much trouble.
"I'm hoping the result is going to be a positive one, I really am.
"It'll benefit so many couples in the area.
"To me, it played such a big part in the most important part of our lives, it's really gutting to know it might close.
"I really feel for couples going through treatment at the moment.
"It's a massive rollercoaster anyway, without the threat of closure hanging over them."
The meeting will start at 10am at Hartlepool Civic Centre.