Manchester to benefit from hospital building programme

Go Ahead for New Hospitals

Fourteen regions will benefit from the scheme, costing around £1.3 billion. New hospitals, new units and extensions and improvements to existing hospitals will be built under private-public partnership.

The decision follows a review of major hospital construction in the NHS. The health minister Alan Milburn, said this was Labour's first step towards putting patient care first where it is most needed.

But the unions have attacked the plans. Bob Abberley, head of health for Unison, the country's biggest union, said: "PFI (Private Finance Initiative) is an expensive experiment doomed to failure."

"Britain desperately needs new hospitals run by the public not the private sector," he added. "PFI is simply a scheme for build now, pay later. This is hospitals on hire purchase."