The health secretary, John Reid, will give the go-ahead today for 15 new NHS hospital schemes worth more than £4bn to be funded mainly through the private finance initiative (PFI).
The programme will bring investment in new hospitals to more than £16bn since 1997 and helps put the health service well on course to meet the NHS Plan target of 100 new hospital schemes open to patients by 2010.
But the decision to rely on PFI, a financial partnership between the public and private sectors, comes as a report in today's Guardian revealed that Jarvis, one of the country's leading PFI contractors, is on the brink of collapse with debts of £230m.
Mr Reid is expected to announce an £880m investment in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire which is likely to include expanding the existing hospital at Watford and a new hospital at Hatfield, including a new cancer centre.
North Bristol and South Gloucestershire is likely to receive £310m to be spent on the relocation of specialist acute services onto a single site with a network of new community services, including community hospitals
Cardiothoracic services at Papworth hospital NHS trust are likely to benefit to the tune of £148m. Options include redeveloping the existing Papworth site or co-locating with Addenbrookes on the Cambridge biomedical campus.
The West Midlands is due to receive £591m which will go to the Sandwell and West Birmingham acute trust. The money is likely to be spent on new acute services, including community-based alternatives to hospital care.
Mr Reid is also expected to announce £204m for the Maternity and Children's hospital in Leeds; £271m for Hillingdon hospital and £121m for the Royal National orthopaedic hospital, both in north-west London.
Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London is set to receive £225m to pay for a new in-patient block and upgrading the cardiac wing. But this will not be built under PFI but with £75m in public capital and the rest through charitable donations
The Leicester mental health trust is due to receive £52m to pay for the re-provision of services while Tees and North East Yorkshire NHS trust can expect to receive £73m for the re-development and relocation of services.
In the west country £75m is being set aside for investment in a new surgical centre in Taunton, Somerset while Southend hospital is expected to receive £100m for redeveloping emergency care services.
Health services in Merseyside are likely to receive £1,008m towards significant capital investment in four NHS trusts in north Mersey, including new mental health facilities, new wards, and construction of new elective care centre .
A further £50m has been set aside for South of Tyne and Wearside for mental health services and an older persons' day hospital while Northwick Park and St Mark's hospitals in Harrow, north-west London are likely to receive £305m to create a new 600-bed acute hospital.
