Doctors are concerned for the future

Documents obtained by Hospital Doctor magazine suggested private companies would be allowed to take over NHS premises, doctors and nurses.

But Mrs Hewitt said no NHS staff would be lost to the health service as a result of these independent sector treatment centres.

She told the BBC's Today programme NHS privatisation was out of the question.

We are not turning a public service into a private service Patricia Hewitt

Mrs Hewitt said the move to set up independent sector treatment centres was neither new or secret.

She said: "People are saying that with these new independent sector treatment centres, we are privatising the NHS. We are not.

"We are not selling public assets to the private sector.

"We are not turning a public service into a private service, and above all, we are not abandoning, and we will never abandon, the principle that health care has got to be available free at the point of need, not based on people's ability to pay."

Mrs Hewitt said the use of the private sector had already resulted in a massive cut in waiting lists for cataract operations.

She said that in five years' time it was planned that 1% of the total NHS budget - and around 10% of the budget for non-urgent operations - would be spent in the private sector.

"We need to keep this in proportion. It is delivering real benefits for NHS patients, free at the point of need, but it is still really a very small part of the NHS as a whole."

Specialist services

Hospital Doctor obtained confidential documents sent to potential private sector bidders.

The magazine said they showed that specialist services such as renal dialysis and heart care could be placed under the control of private operators.

It warned that doctors in many specialities would be forced to work for the private sector or face redundancy.

Professor Alison Pollock, an expert in health policy at University College, London, said the NHS had been dismantled over the last decade - including the loss of 10,000 beds - in order to allow the entry of the private sector.

"This means a move away from planning and integration, and we need to look at the fragmentation that is occurring as a result."