Published: 13/12/2001, Volume III, No. 5785 Page 4

The government is being urged to build more NHS capacity in the wake of its announcement that patients waiting more than six months will be offered the choice of European hospitals or UK private hospitals.

Up to 45,000 patients in the South East, where there are some of the longest waits, will be the first to benefit from the plans designed to offer more choice and flexibility.

A pilot scheme next year will focus on heart patients waiting more than six months for treatment.

Chief executive of Epsom and St Helier trust John de Braux says the plans - launched in a blaze of publicity at a Downing Street press conference with prime minister Tony Blair and health secretary Alan Milburn - are a clear indication that NHS funding formulas need to be re-drawn to reflect activity levels.

Mr Milburn said offering more choice would mean the end of the NHS as a 'monopoly provider' of treatment. 'The whole idea now is to locate choice with the patient rather than the professionals.'

But Mr de Braux said: 'Unless you conclude that the NHS in London and the South East is incompetent and the rest of the UK is fine, you have to admit that the waiting-list overheating is due to lack of proper funding.'

And British Medical Association chair Dr Ian Bogle said the government must 'invest in the NHS so that patients have no need to go abroad or to a private hospital and have the choice of first-class healthcare close to home'.

Mr Milburn said that discussions between NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp and people in the service indicated that there could be capacity in some parts of the country to carry out pilot schemes. He added that there was no question that the NHS could do more if the resources were made available.

'If you look at when we had the big waiting-list push in the last parliament, more operations were carried out... if we provide more money then we can grow the capacity. It can't be done overnight. We can only extend choice as we expand capacity.'

Unison, the BMA and the British Heart Foundation say the plans should only be used as an interim measure while the NHS builds more capacity.