Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has pledged to reintroduce healthcare services in Hartlepool if re-elected in May.
As a first step in transforming NHS services in Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool, Mayor Houchen vowed to reintroduce services and will work to establish a leading state-of-the-art dementia care facility in Hartlepool that will help thousands of families affected by the disease.
Mayor Houchen has also said the region will become a centre of excellence for healthcare services, including making Hartlepool a UK-wide lead in elective and orthopaedic care.
Mayor Houchen said: "Our region deserves first-class health services and we must make sure that everyone can access them quickly and effectively. To do that, we must improve the quality and the type of health services across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.
"I can understand the anger and despair of local people in Hartlepool who have seen services stripped away from Hartlepool University Hospital over the last few years.
"There's a sign at Victoria Park that says Poolies are born not made and unfortunately because of short sighted decision making, next to no babies are born in Hartlepool anymore. As someone with strong links to the town I find this very sad.
"Those in London are too remote from our area to understand the local healthcare priorities across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool. How can someone sat in Whitehall understand the health needs of someone in Hartlepool or Billingham?”
To be able to achieve this Mayor Houchen has written to Northern Powerhouse minister Jake Berry to request the necessary powers to allow local decision makers to reintroduce services at the hospital in Hartlepool that meet the needs of local people.
The move will allow Mayor Houchen, clinicians and experts to tailor budgets and priorities directly to the needs of local people and communities and improve the health and wellbeing of the 700,000 people who live in Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.
A top priority for Mayor Houchen will be to tackle health inequality which has allowed the UK's biggest gap in life expectancy to develop in Stockton over recent decades.
Men living in Stockton's town centre ward have a life expectancy of just 64, while just a few miles away in Billingham West, men can expect to live to 85.
