The centrepiece of the Government's national plan for the National Health Service will be a commitment to halve the average waiting time from general medical practitioner referral to surgery from 18 months to nine months (our Lobby correspondent wrote on July 25, before the plan was published).
Patients whose operations are cancelled at the last minute will be guaranteed a firm date within 28 days or private treatment paid for by the NHS. A new concordat will give NHS hospitals the right to pay private institutions to perform surgery when they themselves are overstretched.
Both pledges are due to come into effect within four years as part of the overall 10-year plan to modernise the NHS and to improve "patient power".
Ahead of his planned statement in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister (Mr Tony Blair) said: "People expect far greater flexibility, they expect far greater speed of access and standard of care. At every level there will be significant reform and change."
He signalled greater future partnership with the private sector in all medical fields, saying: "I have always made it clear that it is not a question of ideology."
The programme follows the comprehensive spending review, which allows for NHS spending to rise by £12bn a year by 2004 - an average annual increase of 6.6 per cent.
Other measures confirmed by Whitehall sources include:
The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Alan Milburn) said: "We have got to change the way the whole system works to genuinely centre it around the patient. We are going to tackle these fault lines that run through the NHS."
An aide said that those faults included demarcation lines and out-dated work practices that effected everyone from hospital porters to senior consultants.