A HOSPITAL trust has come under fire again from councillors over the way it has handled an under-threat fertility service.

Councillor Ray Martin-Wells, from Hartlepool Council, criticised senior executives at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust as he updated fellow councillors about fertility services at Hartlepool’s Holdforth Road hospital site.

A High Court judge has ordered that a thorough public consultation was undertaken into plans to end licensed fertility services, including IVF, at Hartlepool. The Trust had said it couldn’t recruit embryologists - but Cllr Martin-Wells said it had now admitted it had “no desire” to continue running the service, and criticised bosses for holding the “sword of Damocles” over the heads of staff for months.

Last night the NHS Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees Clinical Commissioning Group, which is carrying out the consultation, said it acknowledged the council’s concerns, and said: “This information will be considered alongside all other responses received during the consultation period.”