HEALTH bosses have named the three bidders which will be competing to provide a new hospital on Teesside.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust want to build a new hospital at Wynyard, near Billingham, to serve the people of Hartlepool, Stockton and parts of Easington and Sedgefield.

NHS officials want to replace outdated facilities at the University Hospital of Hartlepool and the University Hospital of North Tees with a £300m hospital at Wynyard, near Sedgefield.

Despite the Government refusing to use public money to fund the project in 2010, the board of the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust believes the new hospital could still be funded privately.

The three rival bidders include Brookfield Multiplex Europe Ltd, which is currently building a major hospital in Glasgow, Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras, an experienced developer of hospitals in Spain and Laing O'Rourke, which has built a number of hospitals and has been involved in a wide range of construction projects.

Lead director for the new hospital Kevin Oxley said: "These bidders have been invited to work with our doctors, nurses, other health professionals and support staff on the design and delivery of the scheme."

The next stage of the procurement process is a three month series of meetings and to go into the design aspects of the hospital in more detail.

After this the initial solutions will be submitted to the trust to be evaluated. At this point the number of bidders is likely to decrease from three to two.

The next stage involves the bidders working with the trust and its healthcare partners in more detail.

After this stage the trust will select its preferred bidder to develop the scheme.

A funding competition will run in parallel to this process to identify the best terms available to fund the scheme.