Two big NHS hospitals serving Tony Blair's constituents in south Durham are to be closed after a fierce row over which of them should provide maternity services, it emerged last night.
Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, has approved proposals to close the hospitals in Stockton and Hartlepool and build a new state-of-the-art facility for nearly 500,000 people living north of the Tees. The hospitals have a combined turnover of about £186m this year.
The proposals will be published today by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel, a body set up by Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, to resolve disputes about NHS closures. The panel is expected to become increasingly busy over the next few years as the government pushes forward with plans to reshape maternity and emergency services across England.
The panel said the new hospital should be built "within easy reach" of people in Hartlepool, Stockton, Easington, and Sedgefield, Mr Blair's constituency.
NHS chiefs in the north-east of England said it might take four to seven years to build and no decisions have yet been made on its precise location or cost. Until then consultant-led maternity and paediatric services will move to Stockton - a bitter blow to people in Hartlepool who have campaigned to keep local services.
Iain Wright, MP for Hartlepool, resigned in September as parliamentary private secretary to health minister Rosie Winterton in protest at the threat to the facility. Last night Ms Hewitt promised a midwifery-led unit in Hartlepool to provide for mothers who do not require medical intervention during childbirth.
Peter Barrett, the panel chairman, said: "Existing maternity and paediatric services in Hartlepool and Stockton ... must change if patient safety is to improve." Dr Barrett added: "Our report sets out a bright future: state of the art maternity and paediatric services that are safe, sustainable and accessible."
Ms Hewitt said: "I appreciate that some local people will hold different views, but clinicians have made their views clear and I am convinced that, as is clearly set out in the independent panel's report, this is the best way forward for local services and local people."
