EAST Lancashire hospitals could lose out under plans to allow the best NHS hospital trusts to sell-off land to pay for care improvements.

The warning has been given to Health Secretary Alan Milburn by Pendle MP Gordon Prentice.

Mr Milburn told MPs that the top performing 'three star' NHS hospital trusts would be able to run poorly performing ones and to sell off unwanted assets and keep the cash.

This would pay for improvements to services, said Mr Milburn, and would no longer need the consent of ministers or result in the money raised being distributed around the NHS.

Mr Prentice has told Mr Milburn that the plan was an invitation for trusts to asset strip -- especially in the South East and London where land values are high.

Labour back bencher Mr Prentice said: "This is a question of giving more to those who already have most.

"Where there are unwanted assets, by all means these should be disposed of but the cash should go back into the NHS pot.

"In North East Lancashire, land values are a fraction of those in other parts of the country.

"Why should the purchase of additional expensive MRI cancer scanners, for example, depend on whether NHS assets can be sold off locally."