Health Secretary Alan Milburn said: "Patients at these trusts will benefit from sustained improvements in performance based on action plans which have addressed the specific weaknesses identified at these trusts.

"This is a further step in the process of bringing the performance of all NHS organisations up to the standards of the best."

Register

The Department of Health placed advertisements in national newspapers on Wednesday inviting organisations and individuals outside the health service to apply to join a register from which future appointments to failing hospitals will be made.

The adverts state: "The government is establishing a register from which experts from the NHS and from the public, voluntary and private sectors may be drawn to compete for franchises to run NHS organisations and trusts."

However, the move has come in for criticism from the leader of the fourth largest trade union in the country.

John Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB, said: "What have things come to when the government is selling off parts of our health service as if they were selling a used car?

"People want their hospitals run by dedicated public servants, not by fat cats after a fast buck."