The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, made health reform a top priority yesterday for a profound shake-up in return for £17 billion of new cash.
The day after the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, unveiled budget plans to increase health spending by £2 billion, Mr Blair told the House of Commons he would lead the charge for change in the National Health Service. The NHS employs one million people and spends £54.2 billion a year.
Mr Blair insisted that extra funding must bring a leaner, more efficient service. "With the money must come modernisation," he said, issuing a direct challenge to NHS workers: "Work with us to make sure this money is well spent."
After consulting health workers over the coming months, a four-year plan will be published in July.
The Tory leader, Mr William Hague, seized on Mr Blair's intervention as evidence of government failure.
"The Prime Minister has taken personal responsibility from the Health Secretary [Mr Alan Milburn] for the health service and we will now hold him personally responsible," he said.
Reforms will include using specialists more effectively, standardising the cost of operations and recruiting 10,000 more nurses. Recruiting private sector managers to revive failing NHS hospitals was another option, Mr Blair's officials said.