Hartlepool MP says there is 'site available in my constituency' for new hospital

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Hartlepool's MP has backed plans for a replacement hospital to serve the town – and claimed there is a site "available in her constituency" for it.

Jill Mortimer, Hartlepool’s Conservative MP, made the comments in the House of Commons during a debate about the nationwide hospital building programme.

Earlier this year North Tees and Hartlepool Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust lodged a request for a new £380m hospital through the Government’s Health Infrastructure Fund.

It comes following reports freezing pipes, broken ceiling panels and leaking roofs were all dogging efforts to keep Stockton’s University Hospital of North Tees fit for purpose.

Hartlepool MP Jill Mortimer has spoken in Parliament about the question of building a new hospital for Hartlepool.

Conservative Mrs Mortimer, speaking on Wednesday, said she “fully supports” the bid by the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust for a new hospital by 2030.

She labelled the current site in Stockton as “another hospital crumbling with concrete cancer that has outlived its life span, and facing huge remedial costs” and said there is a site in Hartlepool which could host its replacement.

She said: “The replacement hospital must be built in an equitable location for all residents north of the Tees, and I have a site available in my constituency—one of the most deprived areas of the UK, where health inequalities have been most apparent.

“If the Government are serious about tackling health inequality in the UK, they must start in Hartlepool.”

She noted the number of people suffering from a range of health issues, such as cancer, depression, obesity, heart disease and high blood pressure “is significantly higher in Hartlepool than the England average”.

She continued: “Despite the sheer scale of deprivation and health inequality in my constituency, healthcare services in Hartlepool have not been expanding over the past decade, but shrinking.”

Glen Hughes, of campaign group Fighting 4 Hartlepool Hospital, and Councillor Rob Cook, have argued for upgrading the existing University Hospital of Hartlepool and building new services on the surrounding land.

Yet trust bosses earlier this year said the University of North Tees Hospital has “the most urgent need for investment”, although the Hartlepool hospital site is “critical” to local care.

When contacted, Mrs Mortimer declined to comment on the location of the site available in her constituency.

Plans for a new trust “super hospital” at Wynyard were axed after coalition government took power in 2010.