A HEALTHCARE chief said she shared a council’s frustration over delays to build a new hospital in Stockton which are "letting local people down".

Stockton Borough Council Leader, Bob Cook, and Chairman of its Health and Wellbeing Board, Jim Beall, said a deliverable plan was "desperately needed" and are calling North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust to provide one as a matter of urgency.

Proposals to replace North Tees in Stockton and Hartlepool Hospital with a £300m health facility were suspended in October because of a lack of high-level political support ahead of May's General Election.

Councillor Cook said: “It is obvious that the Wynyard plan is dead in the water yet we are still to hear if there is any form of Plan B. It is simply unacceptable that we have had to endure such a prolonged period of uncertainty and indecision.

“Stockton Council serves 195,000 residents and we believe every single one of them deserves access to a new, world-class hospital within the borough.

“Reassurance in the shape of a deliverable plan for a new hospital in Stockton-on-Tees, and with clear timescales, is desperately needed.

“We are calling on the North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust to provide one as a matter of urgency.”

Cllr Jim Beall added: “Ours is an area with some of the worst health inequalities in the country and the fear is that any further indecision will only see those inequalities widen"

Chief operating officer and deputy chief executive of North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, Julie Gillon, said it had to think of the needs of all its patients.

“We share Stockton Council’s frustration at the delays in the new hospital. We totally agree that the current situation is letting down local people who are being made to wait for a new hospital while other schemes have been allowed to go ahead.

“We do appreciate the council’s sentiments about meeting the needs of the people of Stockton-on-Tees and their views about refurbishment of the current site."

She added: "However we have to consider the needs of everyone in the area that we serve which includes residents of Hartlepool, Easington and Sedgefield. This why we, along with our commissioners, were committed to acting on the recommendations of a number of independent reviews and building a new facility centrally in the geographical area we serve.”