North Tees and Hartlepool Trust axes fertility services

Fertility services at Hartlepool hospital are to be axed because it has been impossible to recruit enough embryologists to keep the unit going safely, managers have said.

Despite a campaign to save the services, North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust has announced it is "reluctantly" stopping them and is referring patients to other hospitals.

Chris Gibson's daughter Scarlett was born thanks to the expertise of the doctors in Hartlepool, and he has vowed to fight on to get the fertility clinic re-instated.

But trust medical director David Emerton said the shortage of embryologists had left them with no choice.