Sutton is a step closer to having a new state-of-the-art hospital after proposals for investing £500 million to the Epsom and St Helier Hospital Trust were made public.

The draft documents have been published ahead of health leaders meeting on January 6 next year to review plans for a full public consultation in early January.

The preferred option for the new hospital facility is proposed to be Sutton Hospital, next to the Royal Marsden specialist cancer hospital. The other two options would be for the new facility to be at Epsom Hospital or St Helier Hospital. An additional urgent treatment centre is also proposed on the Sutton Hospital site if it were to be the location of the new hospital facility.

This recommendation, along with the timing of the announcement, has infuriated Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh.

"I think it is absolutely outrageous that once again they (South West London Alliance of CCGs) decide to take another step to reduce NHS services to my constituents on the eve of a holiday period when no one will have the opportunity to object," she said.

"I challenge any suggestion that the moving of these services to the site in Belmont will protect more people in need.

"Some of the most unwell and excluded people in our area will be affected by these proposals which have long been the intention of the NHS. Millions have been wasted on poor and bogus consultations and we are just about to enter another round."

All three options would see about 85 per cent of services staying at Epsom and St Helier hospitals, with an investment of more than £80m in the current buildings.

Responding to those concerns A spokesman for the SW London Alliance said: “We felt it was important to publish the documents proposing that we consult with the public on our plans early because of Christmas.

"We will, of course, be speaking to Siobhain and listening to her views.”

Outlined in the documents are assessments of site options which resulted in Sutton scoring as the highest for the location of the new hospital facility, called the ‘specialist emergency care hospital’. Services provided at this ‘specialist emergency care hospital’ would include A&E, critical care, emergency surgery, births in hospital and inpatient children’s beds.

Sutton GP, and Clinical Chair of NHS Sutton, Dr Jeff Croucher said: "It’s not acceptable that very sick patients are wheeled around in their beds often going outside in the rain, to get to different parts of the hospital, because the old buildings are not connected.

"It’s not acceptable that we use ambulances to move people around the hospital for treatment because the lifts break and are too small for modern hospital beds. It’s not acceptable that we don’t have enough single rooms for patients who are at the end of their lives, or for patients who need better privacy and dignity.

"We must make sure this investment comes into the Epsom and St Helier Trust, for the sake of all our local patients, their children and grandchildren.”