HCI has already had millions of pounds of public subsidy and now more money that should be used for treatment will be handed over to the private sector

Nicola Sturgeon SNP health spokeswoman

The Scottish National Party described the move as "incompetence on a staggering scale".

The 540-bed hospital could be developed into a national centre of excellence for cancer or heart services, the BBC understands.

Last year, the executive said it was involved in talks to rent space at the HCI complex.

In January it was confirmed that hundreds of NHS patients would be treated at the hospital.

The executive said it was looking at the possibility of using the private sector to reduce NHS waiting times.

Treatment row

More than 350 patients from North and South Glasgow NHS Trusts were due to undergo heart and hip operations.

The executive's health department said the unit had secured a mixture of general surgery, orthopaedic and cardiac operations for the patients from those trusts.

However, the executive has been criticised in the past over its use of the HCI complex.

Nicola Sturgeon: "Idiotic policy"

Seventy patients from Cheshire and Merseyside were offered heart operations at Clydebank.

Opposition politicians claimed patients in England were enjoying preferential treatment while those north of the border were forced to wait for NHS treatment.

SNP health spokeswoman Nicola Sturgeon said patients were suffering as a result of fragmented health provision.

"Since 1999, Labour has pursued an idiotic policy of cutting acute beds," Ms Sturgeon said.

Beds 'reduced'

"There are around 650 fewer acute beds in the NHS now than there were Labour came to power.

"They now have to make up some of the shortfall in bed numbers by buying a private hospital and lining the pockets of private financiers into the bargain.

"HCI has already had millions of pounds of public subsidy and now more money that should be used for treatment will be handed over to the private sector."

HCl has been used to reduce NHS waiting times

Ms Sturgeon claimed Labour's policy of cutting beds led to a huge rise in waiting lists and times.

"This is incompetence on a staggering scale. Patients are suffering as a result, and yet again, private financiers are profiting at the expense of public services."

The Conservatives' health spokeswoman, Mary Scanlon, said: "If this plan goes ahead, taxpayers will be made to stump up to buy a hospital they could already use were it not for the ideological tunnel vision of the Scottish Executive.

"This is a sweetener to the unions, but a bitter pill to the taxpayer. HCI should be a model for the executive to follow, not a target of its envy."