Oxford's Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre has won an award for the design of its new hospital building.

The £35m development has been named the best health project under £45m by the Private Finance Initiative industry.

The state-of-the-art snail-shaped building, including a new outpatient department, physiotherapy unit, X-ray department, children's unit, conference centre and orthopaedic wards, is being built and paid for by PFI consortium Albion Healthcare.

The NOC's award was announced during a PFI and Public Private Partnerships industry ceremony in London last week, where building projects were judged on their design, quality and value for money.

NOC chief executive Ed Macalister-Smith said: "We are pleased that what we believe to be a super new hospital has been recognised as such by experts in a range of fields from construction, architecture, design, finance and partnership organisations.

"We think our patients and staff will benefit from this integrated design and it will provide us with a top-notch facility for many years to come."

The NOC project was commended for being flexibly designed, without compromising quality and energy efficiency, while remaining sensitive to the environment.

Abdul Hamid, project director of Albion Healthcare Limited involved in the NOC scheme, said: "We are delighted we have won this award as it recognises the hard work and dedication by all those involved in the project."

The building work is currently in phase one, which includes the bone infection unit, rheumatology and occupational therapy, and should be completed early next year.

Phase two will start immediately after this. The completed development will be finished in spring 2006.

The PFI project has been heavily criticised by protesters angry that the NHS will be forced to make annual mortgage payments for the hospital for 30 years after it is completed.

Maintenance workers, cleaners and porters are also concerned they will no longer be health service staff, but for the next three decades will be employed by the PFI consortium.