DOCTORS and high profile names are against a new Wynyard ‘super-hospital’ said MP James Wharton, who is fighting for £50m to be invested in his local hospital instead.

Plans were suspended last month to build a £300m health facility because of a lack of “high-level political support” ahead of May's general election.

The Stockton South MP said North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust had been told by the Department of Health and the Treasury its business plan to replace existing hospitals in Stockton and Hartlepool did not “add up”.

“The Trust said a new hospital was necessary and it needed to find the money to fund it but normal people were saying 'I do not like this' and I had doctors telling me 'This is a terrible idea but I can’t publically say that',” he said.

“A significant number, including a surprising number of high profile names in this area said this is not the right solution.”

“The Trust has done nothing significant to North Tees for a decade, they have been obsessed with this Wynyard project and they have all but closed Hartlepool hospital on the back of it,” added Mr Wharton speaking at his constituency surgery in Yarm Library.

“I want to see money going into North Tees in Stockton and Wynyard ditched but Labour says it will go ahead. I think £50m should be invested in North Tees if Wynyard doesn’t happen.”

Wynyard was given the go-ahead by Labour in 2010, but axed by the Coalition within weeks of it coming to power because of its £464m upfront cost.

The Trust had tried to secure Government support for a slimmed-down, cheaper version of the new hospital using the private finance initiative (PFI) and Government loans.

Chief Executive of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, Alan Foster, said it served the people of Hartlepool and East Durham as well as Stockton and Sedgefield so it was fair to build a new hospital that was geographically central.

“The move followed numerous reports and reviews about the future of hospital services north of the Tees and indeed across the whole of Teesside which recognised that changing needs of the population, as well changes to the way doctors are trained, the hours they work and how they specialise.

The independent Reconfiguration Panel recommended a new hospital be built to serve our population and further developments were made in shifting healthcare out of hospital and into the community.

"Because of the delay in the process our doctors came to us and said they would be unable to sustain the quality of care and achieve the outcomes required of them if they continued to provide their services from two sites,” he added.

Mr Wharton took delivery of almost 700 letters from people fearing the NHS could be privatised at his surgery on Friday evening.

People’s NHS campaigners asked him to call on Prime Minister David Cameron to use his veto in Europe to protect the health service from what, they claim, is a dangerous EU-US trade deal, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

However, Mr Wharton said that he supported TTIP in principle and was 100 per cent committed to the NHS but would not exclude private provision for some areas of healthcare.