Judge halts closure of Hartlepool fertility unit

A judge has ordered North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust not to close the fertility unit at the University of Hospital Hartlepool until a hearing takes place in April.

An injuction was sought by Hartlepool Borough Council, in a bid to stop the closure at the end of March.

The hospital trust claimed it would have to close the assissted reproduction unit because it was unsafe to continue.

They said they couldn't recruit enough embryologists to keep the unit open.

However these claims have been questioned by the Council's Audit and Governance Committee and a leading fertility expert.

Councillors were concerned the trust failed to carry out any meaningful consultation on the planned closure and redundancy notices have already been issued to staff.

Speaking today, Councillor Ray Martin-Wells, Chair of the Council’s Audit & Governance Committee, said: “I am pleased that a High Court judge has intervened to prevent the planned closure of the Unit at the end of March.

“We have been notified by the High Court that there will be a hearing on 5 April and the Hospital Trust cannot therefore implement closure before then.

“As a Council, we are simply not prepared to allow the Trust to ride roughshod over the people of this town.”

Councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher, the Leader of Hartlepool Council, added: “Trust bosses had the opportunity to enter into dialogue with the Council and the people of this town on two occasions to explain the rationale for the closure but both times they declined.

“There is a massive strength of feeling throughout the town about the migration of services from the town’s hospital and we will challenge this all the way.”

Hospital bosses failed to turn up to a meeting with the Council’s Audit & Governance Committee earlier this year.

The committee wants to see the issue referred to the Minister for Health and see the Trust removed from the town's Health and Wellbeing Board.

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