St Bartholomew's hospital and the London NHS Trust have unveiled PFI plans to redevelop two east London hospitals.
A briefing document sent out at the end of last month outlined a £462m scheme for 1200 beds on two sites.

The plans will involve rebuilding the Royal London hospital at Whitechapel and creating a cardiac and cancer centre at St Bartholomew's in West Smithfield.

The trust is expected to advertise for expressions of interest next April and reach financial close in April 2003. The scheme, a mixture of new build and refurbishment, will be built in three phases with the first due for completion in 2007.

The new building work and refurbishment of St Bartholomew's is set for completion in 2009 with the refurbishment of Royal London in 2010. The redevelopments were the largest of 12 PFI schemes unveiled by Partnerships UK in June.

Balfour Beatty announced plans to bid for the Royal London scheme last June.