Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the NHS chief operating officer on the progress of the proposed merger of the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust with South Tees NHS Foundation Trust.
We have had no such discussions and we are not aware of plans to formally merge North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust with South Tees NHS Foundation Trust.