A new £148m hospital, bringing together services provided by Oldchurch Hospital, Romford and Harold Wood Hospital, has got the green light.

The news was announced by Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who included the Havering Hospitals NHS Trust and Havering Health Authority's scheme in the Government's list of third wave Private Finance Initiative Schemes on Wednesday morning.

Now the Trust can draw up an Outline Business Case. Once that gains approval, it can find a private sector partner and then submit detailed plans which could see the new hospital working by early 2004.

Brentwood and Ongar MP, Eric Pickles, who campaigned for the Harold Wood site as a better choice for the people of Brentwood, said: "This announcement is welcome but it is slightly shaded by the fact that this hospital is second best, wrongly placed and wrongly timed. My constituents will still have to put up with a sub standard service for years."

However Havering Hospitals' chief executive, Peter Murphy, said: "This is great news for local people and a boost for all our staff who have worked so hard to maintain the highest quality services for patients, often in outdated buildings

"Since Prof Sir Leslie Turnberg's independent review of Lon-don's health services for the Secretary of State endorsed our plans for the new hospital, we have been working hard on the development in detail.''

Joint chief executives of Barking and Havering Health Authority, Sue Osborn and Susan Williams, said: "This is a significant step forward. We needed the Govern-ment's approval to seek private finance before the new hospital scheme would progress."

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