The private sector could take over some of the 46 treatment centres built and run by the National Health Service as part of the government's drive to expand by £3bn the amount of non-emergency surgery the independent sector provides.

Possible candidates inc-lude a brand new specialist orthopaedic centre in south-west London and Ravenscourt Park Hospital, a former private facility in west London that was taken over on a 15-year lease by the NHS in 2002.