The prime minister has conceded that NHS targets may be impeding clinical care.

Grilled by a panel of disillusioned women voters on Sunday he said targets need to be more flexible so that the quality of care is not compromised.

In the interview on ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme, Tony Blair promised to look again at directives on waiting times that doctors have complained are distorting patient priorities.

He defended the government's use of goals to ensure more cases are dealt with more quickly, as a means of ensuring value for taxpayers' money.

"I have put an extra one pence on National Insurance and put people's taxes up to put record amounts of money into the health service," the prime minister said.

"What we believe is that we also have to show the public there are outputs to this.

"However I think what we do need to do is to make sure those targets don't actually conflate with the quality of care.

"I agree with that and that is something we need to sit down and work out with you."

A&E

Pressed by one hospital doctor on the controversial maximum four hour waiting time in NHS accident and emergency departments, which critics have claimed has led to more admissions and a distortion of priorities, Blair acknowledged the concern.

"There are real issues as to how these targets are used. I understand what people say about the four hour one in accident and emergency," he said.

"It is very difficult this because if you went back a few years ago, accident and emergency departments were a pretty ghastly place to be.

"People used to wait an awful long time for something pretty simple in it. I think most people would say the accident and emergency departments are a lot better than they were.

"Now we feel, maybe we are wrong, but we feel that one way we have managed to do that is by setting a clear target. But I agree maybe we need to look at how we have sufficient flexibility in the targets."