The Cumberland Infirmary was the first PFI hospital

A report from health service union Unison talked to staff in nine PFI hospitals.

It says their comments paint a "damning picture" of the effect of PFI on patient care and staff.

Unison's attempts to discredit PFI are increasingly flying in the face of evidence Department of Health spokeswoman

Concerns about PFI will also be raised at a Unison conference in Harrogate next week.

Unison is renewing its calls for the government to carry out an independent review into PFI to establish if its providing good value for money.

'Cheap and nasty'

Nurses, porters, cooks, cleaners and administrative and clerical staff were interviewed for the report.

Unison claimed all of the first-wave PFI hospitals are desperately short of beds, putting nursing staff under pressure to discharge patients more quickly.

It says several opened since 2000 are looking to build new extensions, forcing them to the use Portakabins, old buildings, or local private sector beds to fill the gap.

The report said all of the buildings visited were "riddled with structural and design problems".

And it said staff were "universally scathing" about the quality of most of the materials and fittings that had been used.

Financial problems were also identified by staff at each trust, which Unison said were partly due to PFI costs and partly due to patient demand.

Some of the comments made to Unison included:

• "The room in outpatients where the patient had his cardiac arrest was so small they couldn't get the equipment in" - staff nurse at the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle
• "We have had several roof collapses so far and we are not even a year in," Unison rep, Edinburgh Infirmary
• "The hospital seems to be continually in a beds crisis" - stroke nurse, Norfolk.
• "The doors cost as much as �1,000 each, and are an accident waiting to happen" - Unison rep, Worcester
• "This building is not going to last. It's cheap and nasty" - engineering services worker, Hereford
• "Whoever heard of a kitchen without windows?" - Norfolk and Norwich catering worker
• "The pathology lab flooded three times in 18 months, twice with raw sewerage" - Unison convenor, Carlisle.

'Tragic'

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: "The government is sticking its head in the sand about the growing financial costs of PFI.

"But if it won't listen to us when we say PFI is failing miserably, perhaps they will listen to the staff on the frontline.

"They are telling us loud and clear it is not delivering improvements in patient care and it is not benefiting staff."

He added: "The report is a damning indictment of the whole PFI process.

"It is tragic that such a large and welcome hospital investment programme should have produced such universally poor results."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "Unison have always been ideologically opposed to PFI and we are familiar with all their arguments against it.

"Any problems in design or construction, bed numbers, workload or capacity have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that a hospital has been funded under PFI.

"Unison's attempts to discredit PFI are increasingly flying in the face of evidence from independent sources, such as the National Audit Office.