Private health firms can expect to win business worth around £20bn from the NHS in the next few years by taking over GP surgeries and setting up new community health clinics, according to a report written for profit-making companies keen to expand their role in the health service.

The "£20bn opportunity ahead for the private sector" in the NHS as a result of coalition policies and pressure on public finances is set out in a briefing on the private sector's potential future role by Catalyst, corporate finance advisers who specialise in healthcare.

There is a "significant opportunity for the private sector in primary and secondary care," says the Catalyst report. "The introduction of GP commissioning and interest in healthcare models offering alternatives to hospital care will require a higher proportion of services to be delivered by the private sector. The markets for these services are estimated to be worth around £20bn."

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As NHS services fail they will be offered to the private sector, added Peedell. Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridgeshire is already being run by private healthcare firm Circle, while private companies are being allowed to bid to take over the similarly debt-laden South London Healthcare trust, which is in administration.