The NHS is to more than double its use of the private sector to operate on patients on waiting lists in England, the health secretary Patricia Hewitt will announce today.

Hewitt will announce new contracts for private healthcare corporations worth more than £3bn over five years.

They will secure about 2m extra operations a year, helping the government to achieve its target of cutting the maximum wait for treatment to 18 weeks by 2008.

In a speech signalling unremitting health service reform, Hewitt will tell NHS personnel managers in Birmingham that the new wave of private contracts signals her "determination to continue both the direction and pace of reform".