Both Labour and the Conservatives have stepped up their battle on the NHS.

In a Commons statement on the government's new five-year NHS plan, John Reid confirmed that he will look to the private sector in order to reduce maximum waiting times to just three months.

Under the radical plan, which will fuel Labour splits over private provision in the public services, the NHS could buy up to one million operations a year from commercial healthcare firms.

Privately, however, health chiefs concede the plan will only be affordable if the Department of Health can reduce the cost of treatments within the private sector.

Speaking ahead of his Commons statement, Reid said Labour was committed to getting "capacity" into the NHS in order to drive down waiting lists.

"By 2008... the average wait will not be years, it will not be months, it will be weeks within four years," he told GMTV.

"We are halfway there and we can do it."

Choice

Reid confirmed that patients will be given the right to choose which hospital they are to be treated in.

The health secretary also announced that the NHS will shift to a greater public health focus, rather than simply being a "sickness service".

And he promised more help for sufferers of chronic diseases that would be available closer to home.

After outlining the achievements in the first half of Labour's 10-year plan, Reid told MPs "there is still a huge amount to do, given the position from which we started".

"Now is a time to renew our radical vision," he said.

He offered an "increasingly personal service... based on clinical need and not ability to pay".

In a statement loaded with criticism of the Tory stance of private health subsidies, Reid said the government would promote "queue cutting, not queue jumping".

Battleground

Public services are the centre of the looming general election campaign following keynote speeches from Tony Blair and Michael Howard yesterday.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley fleshed out the Conservatives' "right to choose" policy on Thursday.

The party's plans include a pledge to abolish all central targets imposed on hospitals, including the controversial star ratings system and waiting list targets.

Lansley slammed "Labour's pig-headed belief that setting a target is the way to get things done".

"It is doctors, nurses, professionals - and indeed managers - who get things," he told the House.

"It is red tape and bureaucracy that stops them."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Paul Burstow welcomed the extra investment going into the NHS but said it "will be wasted if it is stifled by ministerial meddling".

"The white paper makes it clear that the government doesn't trust the NHS to do the job," he said.

And he urged the government to go further in providing long term care for the elderly and banning smoking in public places.