A proposed new hospital in Lancaster will be 'considered carefully' as part of a review by the new government.
Wes Streeting, the new Secretary of State for Health, said he realised there was a "particular urgency" for a new hospital in Lancaster - speaking after the trust running the Royal Lancaster Infirmary raised its internal response to the highest level due to the pressures it faces.
Mr Streeting spoke in the Commons in response to Cat Smith, MP for Lancaster & Wyre, who asked Mr Streeting to meet with her and other North Lancashire MPs to discuss plans for a new hospital in Lancaster.
Ms Smith said: "Lancaster's Royal Lancaster Infirmary is at capacity. The reality is now, it is not fit for purpose.
"The Joint Investment Strategic Committee expressed its support for the new build scheme in Lancaster, so it will soon be on the Secretary of State's desk.
"Will my hon Friend commit to meeting with me and other interested local MPs in North Lancashire, to ensure than after 14 years of chaos under the Conservatives, it is a Labour government that delivers the new hospital for Lancaster?"
Mr Streeting said Ms Smith was "second only" to Chorley MP and Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle for "collaring me about a local hospital project".
"Thanks to her determined efforts I know there is a particular urgency," he said.
"There is a scheme that will be put to me shortly. I will consider that carefully and make sure that I come back with promises that we can keep and promises the country can afford."
Mr Streeting told MPs that he'd ordered a review into the previous Conservative government's £20bn New Hospitals Programme.
Shadow health minister Caroline Johnson said the move could delay projects which are of "vital importance".
Ms Smith posted on Facebook afterwards: "NHS staff and patients know that the crumbling Victorian infrastructure of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary is not fit for the future, and that a new hospital is needed.
"Due to increased hospital pressures, yesterday the hospital trust moved to the highest level of internal escalation to maintain services. The time to act is now.
"I have been relentlessly pushing to get us a new hospital, and deliver better healthcare services for everyone across Lancaster and Wyre."
Read more: Morecambe Bay Hospital Trust takes extra measures to cope with pressures on services - Beyond Radio
As part of the Tories' New Hospitals Programme, David Morris, former MP for Morecambe & Lunesdale, had promised Lancaster would get a new £1.2bn hospital in 2033, on a site to be determined.
"One of the things that's always been needed here is a new hospital," he said, during a Beyond Radio debate of Morecambe and Lunesdale general election candidates in June.
"We've got a good hospital, we've got good staff, and those good people have turned this hospital trust around because of the bad management from the previous government that was running things.
"We need a new hospital and that's why I got the funding for a £1.2bn hospital that's going to be built somewhere in Lancaster. We're just waiting for the planning on that. It was allocated. It's in the New Hospitals Programme.
"2033 it's going to be opening, that's what we've been told. That's when they're going to start building it. We have rumours where it's going to be built. I can't say."
But Peter Jackson, Liberal Democrat candidate for Morecambe & Lunesdale in the recent election, said in response: "We have no idea where it will be built. We certainly don't have planning permission."
And Gina Dowding, Green Party candidate, said: "We don't even have a planning application."
The Lancashire and South Cumbria New Hospitals Programme was originally part of the Conservatives' pledge to build 40 new hospitals by 2030.
But progress on new hospitals across the country was slow and the scheme was criticised, with NHS chiefs concerned that funding doubts and shifting timetables were putting projects at risk.
Read more: GENERAL ELECTION: Candidates debate plans for 'new £1.2bn Lancaster hospital by 2033' - Beyond Radio
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