HEALTH bosses are today celebrating after planners finally gave the go-ahead for building work to start on the Queen Alexandra superhospital.

Yesterday Portsmouth city councillors granted detailed planning permission for the ambitious £1.1 billion scheme that is due to be complete by 2007.

The hospital will continue to be the main treatment centre for patients from across Fareham, Gosport, Locks Heath, Whiteley and surrounding communities.

Final contracts are being drawn up and building work is due to begin in July.

Once finished the new superhospital - only one of 100 in the country - will house 1,382 beds, 119 day-case beds and 20 new operating theatres.

A major regional cancer centre, bigger paediatric wards and a larger intensive care unit will also be built.

The maternity unit at St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth will be transferred to the Cosham site too.

Victorian buildings will be demolished to make way for the new hospital, which has been made possible by the government's Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Glen Hewlett, director of development and estates at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said he was delighted detailed planning permission had been given.

"It's brilliant news for Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and health services across south-east Hampshire.

"It will be a marvellous health facility fit for the 21st century."

The original planning application was withdrawn back in December for modifications to be made to the hospital's appearance.

In the latest design, architects have lowered the height of some of the buildings, used different construction materials and increased the amount of landscaping on the site.

It is expected that preliminary work on the site, including ground condition surveys, will begin within the next few weeks.

Under the PFI arrangement the hospital will be built by a private consortium - The Hospital Company - and leased to Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

The trust will then have to pay back the costs of building the hospital to the consortium during the next 33 years.

During that time The Hospital Company will maintain the buildings and manage non-clinical services.