CAMPAIGNERS fighting to bring hospital services back to Hartlepool have met with health leaders to voice their concerns.

A public consultation is now underway to gauge opinion on services to treat minor injuries in the town, and the Fighting for Hartlepool Hospital (F4HH) group is campaigning for an Accident and Emergency unit to be brought back to Hartlepool.

Residents from Hartlepool, East Durham and other outlying areas are currently treated for minor injuries at the One Life Centre, in Park Road, while anything more serious means they have to go to the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton, following the controversial decision to axe the casualty department in Hartlepool in 2011.

F4HH, which has a very active Facebook page, has now met with the Clinical Commissioning group at a public meeting in Billingham Forum before talking to other healthcare experts at the Grand Hotel in Hartlepool.

Both meetings were set up as part of the public consultation, which F4HH has welcomed, and the group has vowed to keep up pressure on health chiefs to restore Accident and Emergency to the town's hospital, in Holdforth Road.

Glen Hughes, deputy chair of F4HH, said: “We are only a small group with one aim - to fight for our hospital.

“We as a group are made up of like-minded individuals and our main aim is to work towards the return of services to the University Hospital of Hartlepool and repeal the privatisation of the NHS.

“We are trying to take a different stance on our fight, which will include liaising with Iain Wright (Hartlepool MP) as well as local councillors and the NHS Trust and CCG.

“Both meetings were extremely interesting, and while the message seemed to be pushing towards a base where community, preventative medicine, mental health issues and minor injuries can come together in one place, we stressed that the existing hospital site would be the ideal place for this facility.

“It could contain all of those facilities, and more.”

He said the group had more meetings planned with representatives from the council, the health trust and other officials.

He said: "We may all have different ideas or notions on what our town needs but in reality working as a team to resolve the issue is how we believe this can be rectified.

“We will work constructively and respectfully to push forward with our fight.

“We are also affiliated to ‘999 Call for the NHS’ and are in the process of establishing a working relationship with other groups nationally that are facing similar problems to us."

For more information on the campaign, visit the Facebook page Next Steps for Hartlepool Hospital: Fighting for Hartlepool Hospital.