CRITICISMS of privately funded projects such as Swindon's new Great Western Hospital have been rejected by South Swindon MP Julia Drown.

But she added that it was still too early to tell if the Private Funding Initiative represented the best way to fund future hospitals and schools in the country.

Reacting to calls by unions at the Labour Party's conference in Blackpool for an independent review of PFI, a cornerstone of the Government's programme of investment in health and education, Ms Drown said it was important to remain open minded.

She said: "Private finance initiative is giving us new methods of delivering things to the NHS.

"It is a very complex issue and I think we should be wary of adopting a dogmatic approach which suggests that we should not have private funding. In Swindon we are looking forward to having a new hospital built under a PFI scheme. The advantage is that if something goes wrong, the private company will be responsible for putting things right.

"The issue has been examined by the all-party health select committee who spent a number of months looking at PFI in the health service.

"We recommended that PFI should be seen as a pilot scheme and it is too early to say overall whether it represents good value for money.

"I feel that both the advantages and criticisms of the PFI scheme have been exaggerated."

And pre-empting criticisms that she might be sitting on the fence, she said: "It may seem like that, but it is just too early to tell whether PFI is the best way of providing hospitals."

She welcomed the news that more than 100 new bed spaces would be made available at Swindon's new hospital within two years.

"This hospital was always designed with the flexibility to create more ward space. With these new Government targets, it is now more important to ensure that we have enough beds for the community."

The Great Western Hospital, due to take patients by Christmas, was built by construction company Carillion.

Carillion, formally Tarmac, won the contract to build the replacement for the Princess Margaret Hospital under the Government's Private Finance Initiative scheme in 1996.

Under the scheme, the firm will build and own the hospital and Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust will lease it from the developers for 25 years.

It will replace the PMH, which was built in 1958 and needs £50 million worth of repairs.