As the NHS rises up the political agenda, Tony Blair and Michael Howard have traded blows over "two visions" for the health service - prompting a row over the veracity of the Tories' claims.

The clash came as the opposition leader challenged the prime minister over the waiting times for patients suffering illnesses such as breast cancer.

Speaking during the opening stages of prime minister's questions, he said one of his constituents was facing a 20 month wait for potentially life-saving radiotherapy treatment.

He demanded to know why the patient did not have "the right to choose an NHS hospital which can treat her more quickly".

"Why is the prime minister denying her that choice today?" asked the Tory leader.

As Howard's attack appeared to backfire Tony Blair said Labour was expanding capacity and "giving choice" to patients.

A row later emerged over the veracity of the 20 month claim, with the local NHS trust insisting no patient waited more than 18 weeks for treatment.

The Tories were left red faced last night in the wake of the denial.

Improvements

The prime minister had earlier detailed a series of Labour-led improvements which had led to "every single waiting time and waiting list [coming] down since 1997".

And he slammed Tory health policy as a "not a right to choose, but a right to charge".

But Howard claimed that "after seven years of Labour and record investment we still have a million people waiting for treatment".

And he went on to warn that Britain was 18th out of 19 in an international health league table.

Signalling that the NHS is set to become the central election battleground, Howard added: "There are two visions for the future of the National Health Service."

"There is the Labour vision, more targets, more bureaucrats, more centralisation, less freedom for doctors and nurses and phoney choice for patients," he went on to say.

"And then there's the Conservative view… an end to centralisation and targets, real freedom for doctors and nurses and the real right to choose for patients."

The prime minister, however, said he was "delighted" that the Tories were making the NHS "the battleground for the next election".

"He has got one problem, however, and that is his record when, for 10 years, he was a member of a government that put up every single waiting list, that underinvested in the National Health Service," Blair added.

Capacity

Steeping into the debate, Charles Kennedy asked whether the prime minister agreed with the analysis of the chairman of the Audit Commission, who has warned that providing true choice would require "impractical" levels of extra resources.

"What people want are high quality public services available to them locally," the Liberal Democrat leader said.

Blair conceded he is at odds with spending watchdog chief James Strachan.

"The important thing is to increase the capacity and provide the choice," he said.

"Of course what people want is a high quality school or hospital on their doorstep," Blair added.

"The important thing is that if there is spare capacity in the health service people have the freedom to use it."