Over the last ten years Hartlepool Hospital has been systematically stripped of its services, a once beacon of experience has been pulled apart ward by ward and service by service.
The reality of all of this is that almost all services at Hartlepool Hospital have been removed or transferred elsewhere; this means that you can no longer walk into Hartlepool Hospital A&E department, visit a loved one in recovery or pay final respects to beloved family members nearing the end of their life. Now you have to either own your own transport or know someone close to you who will offer to take you, rely on a totally inadequate shuttle service, in some cases take up to five buses or simply walk away without seeking treatment and return home on foot.
Over the last five years we have been offered the ‘One Life Center’ as an appeasement, to a minority this has been adequate but to the majority it has been highly inadequate. We all know someone who has a horror story to tell, some inform us of misdiagnosis and being sent home with broken bones, others tell of being stranded in North Tees Hospital at 3am unable to get home after being transferred to North Tees just to be sent home without any treatment.
To answer the question "How did we get here" the answer is blunt and many people may dislike the answer, but to put it simply "We got here because people either didn't care, thought it would never happen or just couldn't be bothered to do anything about it". Well we care, we want you to care and we want the services we rightly deserve to be returned back to the area and community where they are needed the most.
