A replacement for North Tees Hospital is likely to cost between £1 billion and £2 billion, a senior NHS official has said, as plans for the ageing facility continue to take shape.
Matt Neligan, Chief Strategy Officer at University Hospitals Tees, outlined the estimate during a Tees Valley-wide health scrutiny meeting on Thursday, 23 July, where councillors were updated on options for rebuilding the hospital.
The proposals include rebuilding North Tees Hospital on its current site in Stockton or constructing a new hospital elsewhere, including at the proposed care and health innovation zone on the former Tees railway marshalling yards.
Mr Neligan said the two “most live” options remain the existing North Tees site and the Tees Marshalling Yards location. Longer-term proposals also include the possibility of creating a single “mega hospital” on a central site by combining services currently provided at North Tees Hospital and the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.
The discussion comes as North Tees Hospital continues to face mounting maintenance issues. Planning documents presented to councillors stated that “doing nothing is not an option”.
Mr Neligan showed councillors images of deteriorating infrastructure, saying: “We’ve got some really quite challenging estates.”
The hospital currently has a maintenance backlog of £126 million, despite around £100 million being spent on repairs over the past decade. That figure is projected to rise to £300 million by 2033 if no major redevelopment takes place.
The condition of the buildings has been under scrutiny for several years. In 2023, it was reported that the hospital estate had only around eight years of operational life remaining.
Stockton Conservative Cllr Lynn Hall said a new hospital was “desperately” needed and called for a cross-party effort to secure funding. She also referred to flooding that forced operating theatres to close, creating a backlog of procedures.
Mr Neligan confirmed that while the theatres have reopened, the backlog has not yet been cleared. He said: “That’s a symptom of the condition of our buildings, the fact that we had downpipes of drainage from the rain that weren’t able to deal with the deluge that we had on that day.”
Hartlepool Labour Cllr Michael Jorgeson said residents had been hearing promises of a new hospital since 2011. “It should not take this long to build a hospital,” he said.
Mr Neligan said he shared the frustration over the pace of progress.
Asked how much a replacement hospital would cost, he said the final figure would depend on the design and construction market, but estimated the project would likely cost between £1bn and £2bn.
The estimate represents a significant increase on previous projections, with a new hospital having been expected to cost around £380 million just a few years ago.
