Every taxpayer is having to fork out �5 a year for the next 30 years which goes straight to these people

John Edmonds, GMB

He added that the total cost of the projects was around five to six times their original capital cost.

Mortgages, which the PFI arrangements are often likened to, cost around double the original cost of the building.

Earlier this week, an independent report into Cumberland Infirmary, the first hospital to be built under PFI, said there was chaos on the wards, and urgent operations having to be cancelled.

The TUC conference in September is likely to see deep-seated opposition to PFI and other forms of private sector involvement in the NHS.

'Loan sharks'

GMB union leader John Edmonds said this latest report showed: "The government privatisation plans are effectively creating a new breed of NHS loan shark at taxpayers' expense.

"Every taxpayer is having to fork out �5 a year for the next 30 years which goes straight to these people. That is �5 which is not being spent on a single nurse or doctor."

He said the report showed that instead of bringing extra cash into the NHS, as government ministers have promised, the private sector would be "bleeding" up to �3.4 billion from the NHS in profits alone.

The report suggests the total cost of rent for PFI over the next 30 years could come to �14 billion.

Researchers say 25% of that will be profit - a sum they estimate would pay for 7,300 new nurses each year.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said all private companies which had been involved in building hospitals of providing services to the NHS since its inception in 1948, were interested in making a profit.

"Importantly, the firms involved in PFI will only make a profit if they deliver for the NHS. If they fail, they will not make a profit."