A FIERCE political row broke out last night after plans to build a £300m new hospital in the region were put on hold until after the General Election.

Bosses at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust said they were “bitterly disappointed” at the lack high-level political support for the plan to replace ageing hospitals in North Tees and Hartlepool with a state-of-the-art new hospital at Wynyard.

The announcement by the trust’s board that the long-running proposed development at Wynyard should be put in ice until after the next election led to local MPs dividing on political lines.

Stockton North MP Alex Cunnningham said: “It is an outrage that, after seven years of planning and reviews, the proposals for the new hospital are no nearer to gaining the final approval that will deliver a world class facility to the region and help to tackle health inequalities.

“I am sick and tired of the Government playing politics with the health of the people in our communities, and I understand that local trust now feels they can do nothing more to prove their case.

“No-one on the Government side is speaking up for our people who suffer from some of the worse health inequalities in the country and continue to lose out.”

Mr Cunningham predicted that the area would have wait until a Labour Government before the scheme would get the go-ahead.

Sedgefield Labour MP Phil Wilson tweeted that the decision showed “a lack of commitment to the North-East”.

And Easington Labour MP Grahame Morris added: “It is clearly a political decision and the Government should be ashamed of themselves for failing to support new state of the art health services for people in East Durham, and the North-East.”

But Stockton South Conservative MP James Wharton insisted that the plans for Wynyard were unnecessary and unpopular.

He revealed that a poll of 2,673 constituents showed that 76 per cent opposed the plans.

Mr Wharton said: "The Trust has not convinced the public to support these plans and without public support such significant reconfigurations cannot be carried through. People have told me in overwhelming numbers that they do not want this scheme and many will welcome the decision to suspend work."

Mr Wharton said the process has “cost a fortune” and the trust now needs to turn its attention to North Tees hospital.

“We need to invest in it and upgrade facilities to provide top quality care. The trust should immediately start planning to use some of the hundreds of millions it had earmarked for Wynyard on North Tees so that local people get the care they deserve."

A larger, more expensive version of Wynyard hospital was given the go-ahead by the then Health Secretary Andy Burnham in March 2010.

It was stressed that the new hospital would be part of a wider programme of investment - including three integrated care centres in Billingham, Hartlepool and Stockton - providing more services and treatment.

But within two months the new Coalition Government announced they were scrapping the plans as part of austerity measures.

Since 2010 the trust has been trying to convince the Government to back the scheme.

Earlier this year North Tees and Hartlepool officials expressed their confidence that the Wynyard project would get the backing it needs.

But with a new General Election approaching the trust has decided to put development plans on hold until a new Government can decide whether the Wynyard project fits in with its new priorities.

Trust chief executive Alan Foster said it was “inevitable” there would now be more centralisation of services at North Tees Hospital “to maintain and improve the safety and quality of hospital-based provision”.