Health minister greenlights £2.4bn PFI hospital bonanza

A total of 13 PFI hospital schemes, worth £2.4bn, have been given the green light by health minister John Hutton.

Hutton gave 13 NHS Trusts the go-ahead today to issue tenders for their schemes. He said: "We want to expand capacity in the NHS. We want to see more doctors, more nurses, more beds and more hospitals. To achieve this we must look beyond traditional sources of funding. we must not let traditional ideological barriers stand in the way of progress.

"PFI has its critics, but the facts speak for themselves. It is enabling us to bring much-needed extra capacity and services to some of those communities who need them most," he added.

The tenders for the 13 schemes are expected to be advertised in the OJEC within the next six months.

The schemes are: Leicester £363m; Paddington £327m; Whipps Cross £313m; North Staffordshire £254m; Peterborough £250m; St Helen's & Knowsley £228m; Wakefield £200m; Salford £175m; Chelmsford £110m; North Middlesex £74m; Oxford £60m; Hull, £53m; Walsall £44m.

A dozen of the schemes were announced in February 2001, the exception being the Paddington project, which was announced in July 1999.