HEALTH services in Manchester, Salford and Trafford are to get a '140m pound make-over the next five years.

A scheme to improve services, including the re-vamp of GP surgeries in the area, is the largest of four new public/private partnship projects, with a capital value over '280m, for which building services group John Laing's subsidiary Laing Investments has been named as preferred bidder.

Laing Investments and Bank of Scotland have formed a consortium, ExcellCare, for the Manchester scheme, the first NHS Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) project in the area.

Under the government's LIFT programme, up to 3,000 family doctors' premises throughout the country will be improved or replaced by 2004.

The Manchester, Salford and Trafford scheme brings together six primary care trust, three local authorities and the Greater Manchester ambulance Service, who will work in partnership to improve health services.

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