Michael Howard has launched Conservative plans to reform the health service, pledging to end hospital waiting lists and eradicate "superbugs" such as MRSA.

The Tory leader said he would put matrons onto every hospital ward with the power to shut them down when dirty, which he claimed Labour would not allow them to do.

A new voucher scheme will also give every patient the right to treatment at any NHS hospital in the country, or take a public subsidy to the private sector, which Howard claimed would make waiting lists a "thing of the past".

Ministers claim the Tory plan would run down the NHS by part-privatising it with its subsidy to the middle class.

Health minister John Hutton said independent experts agreed it would "hand out piles of cash to people who would have already gone private."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Paul Burstow said the Conservative plans were "uncosted, unfair and unbelievable."

Meanwhile the Telegraph reports that hospitals in Woolwich and Bromley have had to cancel operations in order to cope with emergency cases and meet government targets.