Hospitals on Teesside will receive more than £6m to upgrade facilities ahead of the winter amid fears of a second wave of coronavirus, Boris Johnson has announced.

The Prime Minister said the additional cash would enable hospitals to maintain essential services and reduce the risk of covid-19 infection during the coming months.

It equates to £3m for the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, and £3.18m for the South Tees trust, which runs James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

In total, hospitals in the North-east will receive £53m from a £300m national pot, and has been welcomed by local Tory politicians.

The money can be used by hospitals to increase A&E capacity, with more treatment cubicles and expanded waiting areas to ease overcrowding and improve infection control.

Officials said the projects would all be completed by the start of 2021 so hospitals would benefit from the upgrades during the peak months of winter.

Lindsey Robertson, care group director for responsive care at North Tees, said: “This funding is fantastic news as we prepare for the next few months and beyond.

“It will allow us to plan and respond in the strongest way possible to increased demand on our front of house areas in urgent and emergency care and the pressures this places on the whole organisation.

“The winter period has traditionally been a challenging time for every NHS Trust – bringing with it a rise in the number of sick patients in hospital and pressure on the service. It’s important that we are able to respond to these challenges while also following infection control guidelines and continuing social distancing measures. 

“With this in mind, this funding will allow us to make a number of improvements. These include creating one single entrance to urgent and emergency care so patients are directed to the right place and the merger of the existing paediatric day unit with the paediatric team in emergency care to help create a more robust service.

“It will also allow us to diagnose and treat patients more quickly, be more co-ordinated and proactive, develop our integrated workforce as we did so successfully at the height of the pandemic and promote alternative pathways of care to help patients go home as soon as possible and make sure space is available in our hospitals for patients in the most need.”

Stockton South Tory MP Matt Vickers thanked staff for their dedication during the pandemic.

He said: “While we hope for the best this winter, its right that we plan for the worst. This funding to upgrade A&E across the trust will ensure that we are in the best possible position for the challenges that the winter months may bring.

"Supporting and improving North Tees is an absolute number one priority of mine – this is a good start."

Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham, right and left, Stockton South MP Matt Vickers

Alex Cunningham, Labour MP for Stockton North, urged a note of caution.

“While it is absolutely right hospitals are given provision to ensure they can effectively prepare for the worst this winter, after 10 years of Tory cuts and underfunding, this money is a drop in the ocean of what’s needed to address the health inequalities faced by my constituents," he said.

“People in my Stockton North constituency face higher than average rates of heart and respiratory problems which puts them at a much bigger risk of severe complications with covid-19.

“We’re still in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, cases are creeping back up and hospitals need support now – not months down the line.”

The announcement is on top of a £3bn fund announced last month to enable the NHS to continue to use the extra hospital capacity acquired from the independent sector, maintain Nightingale hospitals until the end of March and expand its flu vaccination programme.

Mr Johnson said it was essential that people who needed emergency treatment during the winter should attend hospital, confident they would not become infected with the virus.

"Thanks to the hard work and tireless efforts of NHS staff throughout the pandemic, our A&Es have remained open for the public," he said.

"It's vital that those who need emergency treatment this winter access it, and for those who remain concerned about visiting hospitals, let me assure you that the NHS has measures in place to keep people safe."

Dr Nick Scriven, immediate past president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said while any additional funding was helpful, there were limits to what it could achieve.

"The money is welcome but how do we think we can actually implement what would be building works in existing units whilst remaining safe and efficient - all before any rise in either covid or non-covid patients which, if like last winter, may start before the end of October?" he said.

Teesside Live asked South Tees how they would use the money, and a spokesperson said: “Our clinicians are finalising plans to use this investment to make some changes to The James Cook University Hospital site which will further support the delivery of safe care this winter and any potential surge in covid-19.”

Jacob Young, Tory MP for Redcar, said: " This significant extra funding is great news and will go a long way to helping the team at James Cook Hospital build extra capacity in A&E, enabling them to deliver essential care and reduce the risk of coronavirus infections."

His colleague Simon Clarke, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland said: “Whilst covid-19 has undoubtedly posed huge challenges to our NHS, it is important to remember that vital services such as A&E are there for you and your family when you need them and our fantastic emergency care teams have continued to provide safe care for everyone throughout the challenges of recent months."

But Labour's Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough, said: “Any new additional funding for our local health service is to be welcomed if indeed this is new money. And whilst we don’t know what the money is to be spent on, undoubtedly there is an urgent need to replace equipment that has been in use for much longer than originally expected. However, the sums of money talked about sadly won’t be sufficient to meet the needs that exist.”