THE case for axeing a £464m hospital planned for the region was in “disarray” yesterday, after the Government put forward three different figures for alleged savings.

Health Minister Simon Burns was accused of spreading confusion as MPs staged a debate to protest the scrapping of the 600-bed Wynyard Park project, north of Stockton.

During the debate, Mr Burns claimed the saving – compared with the cost of continuing to run ageing general hospitals in Hartlepool and Stockton – was £11m, over 35 years.

However, earlier in the debate, he put the saving at only £9,000, while the official record of a debate three weeks ago recorded Mr Burns describing a saving of £90m.

Ian Wright, the Hartlepool MP, who staged the debate, said: “The health minister is in complete disarray and utter confusion as to what the figures are for the hospital.”

Mr Burns defended the shock decision on the grounds that the public finances were in a “shocking” state and because North Tees and Hartlepool, as a foundation trust, was required to show “financial independence” from the Treasury.

The minister also sought to stamp on rumours that the future of Univeristy Hospital of Hartlepool was in doubt, despite the Wynyard decision.

Mr Burns said: “There is no plan to close Hartlepool hospital.

That will remain the case unless the strategic health authority, or the primary care trust, were to propose that.”

Wynyard Hospital, due to open in 2015, would have boasted an accident and emergency department, a minor injury unit, plus a network of clinics for people in north Teesside and east Durham.

Mr Wright warned that local people were “battered and bruised” by the decision to scrap it and that the “loss of morale” among NHS staff was affecting retention and recruitment.

Pointing out that health experts were united in believing Wynyard Park was needed, Mr Wright said: “Is this not an example of top-down meddling by politicians, regardless of clinical evidence?”

Mr Burns said he had released figures for the savings to be made because Andy Burnham, Labour’s last health secretary, had “incorrectly”

claimed the new hospital would save money.

The minister blamed a mistake by Hansard, the parliamentary reporters, who recorded him saying, on July 5, that the respective costs were £5.33bn and £5.24bn, a difference of £90m.

Mr Burns then said the true figures were “£5,000,033,000 and £5,000,024,000 –a disparity of just £9,000” – before eventually setting on a difference of “£11m”.

North Tees trust is now trying to rescue the plan through a private finance initiative.