Proposals for a brand new hospital in County Durham may transfer ahead after Ben Houchen was re-elected as Tees Valley mayor.
Conservative politician Houchen secured his third time period within the publish after working on a platform together with a pledge to exchange the College Hospital of North Tees.
Houchen has pledged to carry a public session on the place a brand new facility can be situated after conceding that the present Stockton-On-Tees website is unlikely to be appropriate.
In a marketing campaign video final week, Houchen mentioned “…we will construct a hospital and we might help fund that hospital and we will guarantee that it’s match for function and we will ensure that it’s state-of-the-art and we will ensure that it gives the entire issues that we have to guarantee that native folks have the well being companies which are required”.
Nonetheless, a battle with central authorities could possibly be on the playing cards over the proposal.
In January, well being division officers instructed the Yorkshire Put up that Houchen didn’t have powers to construct a hospital.
Nonetheless, Houchen mentioned in his video: “I constructed prepare stations. Practice stations aren’t in my remit.
“We created the UK’s first and largest freeport. Freeports aren’t within the mayor’s remit.
“I saved the airport from closure. Aviation and airports aren’t inside the mayor’s remit.
“It doesn’t should be inside my remit to construct the constructing.”
Houchen mentioned that when constructed, the proposed constructing can be handed over to North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Basis Belief.
Houchen mentioned he was trying into the popular possibility of constructing the hospital in phases on the present website, however that “it’s trying unlikely or doubtlessly unlikely that that could possibly be the case”.
He held off competitors within the vote from Labour’s Chris McEwan, who had pledged to “be a part of up our transport system, repair our damaged roads and proceed to help the airport”.
