Figures from the department show the government intends to increase bed numbers throughout the United Kingdom.

The move comes as the Health Secretary Frank Dobson faces increasing criticism over Labour's failure to meet its "early pledge" and reduce waiting lists.

Around 1.29 million people in Britain were waiting for NHS treatment in the first quarter of 1998 - more than ever previously recorded.

Labour promised to cut waiting lists by 100,000 from the level they inherited from the Conservatives.

The new beds are to be funded out of £500m given to the NHS by the Chancellor Gordon Brown in his spring Budget.

They are to be distributed as follows:

• Twelve - including the cancelled closure of eight gynaecology beds - at Havering Hospital, Essex
  
• A fifth surgical ward of 24 beds at Wellhouse Trust, Barnet, north London
  
• 55 beds plus the cancelled closure of 30 others at Bedford Hospital, Bedfordshire
  
• Between 10 and 14 beds at Royal Free Hospital, London
  
• Six beds at University College and Middlesex hospitals, London
  
• Six beds at the Royal Nose Throat and Ear Hospital, London
  
• A new ward at West Middlesex Hospital
  
• 22 beds at Thanet Hospital, East Kent
  
• 38 beds in Cambridge and Huntingdon health authority
  
• Eight beds at Royal Hull Hospital, Humberside
  
• Six beds in East Yorkshire Hospital, Cottingham, Yorkshire
  
• 12 beds at Greenwich Hospital, south London
  
• 12 beds at Bromley Hospital, Kent
  
• 23 beds at Croydon General Hospital, Surrey
  
• 12 beds and 30 additional staff at Homerton Hospital, east London
  
• 20 beds at Chase Farm Hospital, London
  
• An 18-bed ward to open in Gateshead Hospital, Tyneside
  
• 15 beds at Mount Vernon Hospital, Middlesex
  
• 24 beds at Guy's and St Thomas's hospitals, in south London
  
• 17 beds at Kings College Hospital, south London
  
• 32 beds in Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth health authority, in south London
  
• 14 beds at Newcastle and North Tyneside Hospital
  
• 25-bed ward at Whipps Cross Hospital, in Redbridge, Essex