North Tees Hospital: Decision on £380m overhaul bid delayed

Trust chiefs say it costs £8m per year to make ongoing repairs at the University Hospital of North Tees

A decision on whether a crumbling Teesside hospital will be given £380m for a rebuild has been delayed.

Last year North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust submitted a bid for a new facility to replace the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton.

A decision had been due to be made this spring.

However, the government has confirmed it will now announce which bids from across the country have been successful "later this year".

The University Hospital of North Tees, built in the 1960s, has had problems with falling ceiling panels, roofs and windows leaking and pipes freezing.

The trust running it has previously said it is costing £8m for running repairs and in February finance chief Neil Atkinson revealed concrete repairs to the main tower block building had cost £455,000.

'Extremely worried'

The Department of Health and Social Care said it had received 128 applications for new hospitals from 100 health trusts with eight sites ultimately due to be selected, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Officials said they had carefully considered the expressions of interest and would be "moving to the next stage soon" with the successful trusts informed "in due course".

On Monday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the hospital programme was "on track" to deliver 48 new facilities in England by 2030.

But Alex Cunningham, Labour MP for Stockton North, said he was "extremely worried" that "Tory incompetence" would lead to a "huge waste of taxpayers' money".

He added: "Years have passed since the Tories promised these so-called new hospitals, and yet the projects are getting kicked further down the line at a time when health inequalities in areas like ours are widening and millions of people face treatment delays."